Supercell is a name you should already be familiar with as they published Boom Beach, Clash of Clans, and Hay Day, some of the highest grossing mobile games of all time. All of their games have addictive and compelling gameplay that is enhanced by their use of cute 3D graphics and easy-to-navigate user interfaces.

With the ever increasing popularity of mobile TCGs/CCGs, we knew it would not be long before this mobile game publisher would take a stab at the genre. Supercell has thrown their hat into the ring with Clash Royale, an online, real-time, free-to-play CCG/MOBA hybrid set in the same universe as Clash of Clans.

Does Clash Royale have the same addictive gameplay as Supercell’s previous titles? Read on to find out…

Clash Royale is not exactly a sequel to Clash of Clans, but it is set in the same universe. There are many characters and creatures that have crossed over into Clash Royale.

GAMEPLAY

Clash Royale is a deceptively strategic game wrapped up in a simplistic-looking shell. The CCG components of the game are card collecting and leveling up your cards so that you can enhance the overall power of your Battle Deck. Towers and lanes cover the basic MOBA elements that blend so well with the CCG components.

Beginning the game, you are thrust into a basic tutorial that explains how to play your units and how your resources work. After this, you are left to play the remainder of the tutorial battles without any further guidance, and this makes Clash Royale appear simple and lacking strategic depth. However, this could not be further from the truth.

The strategic merit of Clash Royale can be seen in the player’s decision-making process of what units to play, and when. Battles are fought in real-time, so your decisions have to be made on the spot. Trusting your judgment and counter-playing your opponent’s moves and unit placement will be crucial in securing victories. The game has a relaxing feel to it, but the pressure you feel in battles completely changes that and should be able to bring out the competitive nature in anyone!

Playing your units costs Elixir, which replenishes over time. You will always have four units or spells to choose from in your hand at any given time. Having this variety helps to counteract the units your opponent may play. Spells do what you think they should, deal damage and some may even immobilize enemy units. Your units are your offensive backbone while spells help to deal a little more damage when you need it.

Send your units to attack the opponent’s towers and castle. Be careful that you don’t leave yourself without a possible defense!

Each unit has summoning costs, health, and attack statistics that you may view in greater detail. The characters and creatures of Clash Royale also feature in Clash of Clans. Both games are set within the same universe, and if you have played Clash of Clans, you will recognize many of the faces in Clash Royale. The familiar characters should entice Clash of Clans players to try something a little different in Clash Royale.

Battle is conducted over two lanes with both players having two towers and one castle each. Your units will progress along the path they are closest to and will always attack any units or towers they come across, whatever they encounter first. Victory is secured either by destroying the castle, thus earning you three Crowns which go toward a Crown Chest, or by the timer elapsing and you have destroyed more towers than your opponent. If you destroy at least one Crown and win, you will earn as many Crowns as towers you had destroyed before the timer ran out.

There are a large number of different unit types that fill specific roles. Your towers can attack any unit that comes into range of them, but some ground units will not attack flying units, for instance. You will find that as you collect and level up units, you will identify unit combos that are hard for your opponent to counter. What I enjoyed most is that there is plenty of flexibility in unit compositions for your Battle Deck. When I checked the matches that you can watch and the leaderboards, I was able to see plenty of different Battle Decks.

Graphically, Clash Royale is well-presented with some excellent detailing. The character models and other 3D effects are clean, crisp, and bright. The overall aesthetic of the game comes across as cartoony, but not in a childish way. The sounds are non-intrusive and are rather pleasant, especially the battle music. The overall polish is exemplary as you would expect from a publisher with as much experience (and yes, money) as Supercell.

The “TV Royale” page presents you with an excellent opportunity to learn more about what the highest ranked players use. If you are lucky enough to find the same cards, you too could do very well for yourself.

MODES AND FEATURES

Clash Royale is not a broad game yet, as there are very few modes that involve battles. All player-versus-player battles earn trophies which will help you climb the leaderboard. The only way to play a non-ranked game is to play a training match. However, the only reason to do so is to test your Battle Deck, as you will not earn rewards for winning.

If you want some deck ideas, or just to learn some advanced strategies, you can watch other player battles through TV Royale. I found watching matches between players is very helpful in identifying excellent strategies that I could adopt in my battles. You can also gain useful information by just looking at their Battle Decks – remember to make a note of the spells they’re using, too!

Of the few non-battle modes, the card collection will be your most frequented screen. You will be able to edit your Battle Deck and see all of the cards you own, and those you don’t. Cards are found in chests won from battles or by buying them in the shop. However, you can only find cards that correspond to your arena rank. This limitation ensures that both you and your opponent are likely to have access to the same cards, making your strategy the key to winning.

The card collection screen is where you will also level up your cards. As your cards level, their base statistics such as attack, health, and damage per second increase. You should also pay attention to their other attributes such as attack range and movement speed as these are also important things to consider when building your Battle Deck.

I have never come across a game that monetizes prizes or rewards – until now! I don’t know why Supercell chose to do this… Oh wait, yes I do.

So far, everything I have said about Clash Royale has been positive – with good reason. Clash Royale has some great components that are fun and enjoyable. However, there is one major Achilles Heel that drags the overall score down significantly. Somehow, Supercell has decided to monetize the prizes it awards you in-game, though not directly.

With each win, you are awarded a chest that contains more cards and gold, the in-game soft currency. However, you are not able to open your chests immediately. Instead, you are required to wait after clicking open and will only be able to open your chest when the timer expires. Waiting is fine for the chests awarded from the inaugural training matches, but as the chests get better their timers get longer and longer. A silver chest will set you back three hours of waiting, and a gold chest requires an eight-hour wait!

So, how is this monetization I hear you ask? You may pay Gems, the premium in-game currency, to open them immediately. Your acquisition of Gems in Clash Royale is exceptionally slow, so in-app purchases are a must if you intend to access your prize straight away. You need the cards contained within the chests to power up your units and to acquire the gold necessary to pay for those power-ups.

The worse news is that you can only ever have four chests waiting to unlock at any time, even worse is that only one can have an active timer. If you have four silver chests and are unwilling to pay to unlock them, you will be waiting 12 hours before you can open them. This will significantly reduce the number of battles you’ll want to take part in, because why bother if you can’t get a chest from it because you’re full already? I find this feature disappointing, but understand the business decision behind why they’ve implemented it.

Aggressive play styles win more often than passive play styles. Assault your opponent early and it’ll be hard for them to recover.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

Access to your deck in Clash Royale can be found within the Cards screen, which is essentially your card collection and deck editing area. Adding cards to and from your deck is very straightforward. You can gain additional detailing on each unit and card via the Cards screen which helps in crafting the perfect team and spell composition.

Increasing the power of your units and spells is also done through the Cards screen. When you open chests (once you’ve waited or paid), you may acquire duplicate cards of those that you already own. When this happens, and you meet a threshold, you can pay gold to enhance that card’s power. The more cards you have, the higher levels the card can achieve. Some cards are worthy of more investment than others, but you should always enhance a card if you plan to have it in your deck.

In many of my online matches, I found that playing aggressively was the best strategy, but you also need to consider the possible counter-plays. I would often want to send in a ranged unit behind a melee as support damage. The melee units have higher health than ranged units, so can “tank” hits from towers and enemy units while the ranged unit puts in the damage numbers.

If you wait too long, you’ll give your opponent the time required to have too many counter-plays while you struggle to keep up with the units they’re pumping out. The tide can turn quickly to you being in a reactionary position, and that is never good in a real-time environment.

Clash Royale is fun and addicting. It has some excellent strategy behind a simple-looking game. The huge problem is the rewards system, which doesn’t feel rewarding in the slightest. It’s very frustrating.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If it weren’t for the blatant grab for your wallet, there’s a great game here. I would heartily recommend Clash Royale as a must have title to add to your growing stable of new and innovative titles, but I feel reluctant to do so when it’s monetized as blatantly as this. It is a shame because Clash Royale is certainly innovative.

There is still plenty of fun to be had when playing Clash Royale. The ease with which you can settle into the game adds weight to the argument that you should give it a go. However, if you’re not the type to eventually put hard cash into a game, but rather expect to be able to progress at a decent rate, then you will be disappointed. Hard cash is the only way to get the best experience possible out of Clash Royale.

The excellent graphics, animations, and Clash universe are the key selling points of Clash Royale. The implementation of the CCG/MOBA mix has been expertly crafted into a pleasurable gaming experience that is well-balanced and offers strategic depth. It is worthy of a download at the very least. After that, it is your decision as to how much you’re willing to pay to continue that experience.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/review/clash-royale/feed/21Star Crusade: War of the Expansehttp://tradingcardgames.com/star-crusade-war-expanse/
http://tradingcardgames.com/star-crusade-war-expanse/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2016 14:59:50 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=13383Star Crusade: War of the Expanse is an online, free-to-play, sci-fi collectible card game in which six factions are fighting... Read More »

]]>Star Crusade: War of the Expanse is an online, free-to-play, sci-fi collectible card game in which six factions are fighting over an unclaimed sector of space. The developers, Xim, Inc., have granted access to Star Crusade via Steam’s Early Access program as an open beta, with the aim of ironing out the final few bugs before an official launch several months away. When I saw the game in the Steam Store, I just had to see how good it is. It’s been touted as “Hearthstone in Space”, and bracing myself for that to be true, I dug in and found something rather unexpected.

Is Star Crusade a good game? Read on to find out…

Star Crusade features six factions each with their own Commander. The graphics and attention to detail are second to none!

Gameplay

Star Crusade has many game mechanics that fans of Hearthstone will recognize. The gameplay mechanics, the way in which you interact with the cards on the board, the deckbuilder, and even the hero powers are all similar (some, identical) to Hearthstone. I was prepared to be disappointed with this fact, however, there are many features and mechanics introduced in Star Crusade that give it a different strategic feel and actually might make it superior to its forbearing game.

The layout of the game board is similar to almost every two-player, casual CCG that Star Crusade will inevitably be competing against in an already overcrowded genre. Players will have a starting hand with the ability to send as many of these cards back to their deck as they wish, and hope for a better replacement.

Playing cards and card interactions such as attacks are very similar to those same CCGs. Your card plays are restricted by the standard incremental resource system, called ‘Supply’ in Star Crusade. However, the Supply can also influence the outcome of some cards which have their effects resolve based on the current number of Supply you have available.

Many of the keywords copied over from other CCGs have changed names but with similar effects. For example, the Screen effect in Star Crusade is the same as Taunt in Hearthstone. You can always see a card’s effect at a glance when you long press the card with your left mouse button or while deckbuilding. The familiarity of these keyword abilities will help you settle into the gameplay with very little need for adjustment.

Many of the keywords are different, but their effects are almost identical to ones you should already be familiar with.

Gameplay Continued

There are a few gameplay mechanics and features that give Star Crusade a different strategic feel to many of its competitors. The first are the sub-resources, such as Firepower, that can enhance cards beyond their base statistics or effects. You’ll accumulate these temporary resources through other cards. For example, some cards will add to your ‘Firepower’ value while on the field, and cards will reference your current Firepower value as to how strong their effect will be when you play a card. This makes creating decks that revolve around this sub-resource a real prospect, rather than an afterthought.

The card art and user interface are of the highest quality, which will make selling Star Crusade to new players much easier. One of the most impressive features is the background on which you play. The scenery changes to reflect the current state of battle and ships will fly past when you deploy particular units to the battlefield. Although not interactive, it is entertaining to watch how it changes over time.

Playing Star Crusade is very effortless thanks to its easy-to-learn mechanics and familiar gameplay. You should play through the brief tutorial though if you’re new to TCGs/CCGs, as it will settle you in nicely. There are six factions to choose from that have different play styles and strategies bound to suit different tastes. All factions also have their own Commander. They have abilities that can be triggered using Supply – enhancing the strategic value of particular deck types when built to exploit these powers.

You can attack cards or the Commander directly. The only time you can’t attack the Commander is when your opponent controls a card with Screen, forcing you to attack it first instead.

Features

So far the game modes are limited due to Star Crusade being in beta. The developers are keen to iron out mechanical issues before adding more modes and features. However, what you can play now is more than enough for those that want the full online experience.

You may battle against real opponents in casual and ranked games whenever you wish. If you don’t quite feel confident in taking on a real opponent, you can test your skills and deck against the A.I. bot instead. Winning casual or ranked games will enhance your player level and earn you some Credits for use in the game store.

Raids are another way of gaining precious cards and other rewards. Raid is a drafting mode in which you have to pick a single card from three, thirty times, to build your deck. It’s similar to the Arena mode of Hearthstone. You will have a 30-card deck at the end of it and must then take part in consecutive battles. Losing three times ends your run, and you earn prizes based on your overall success. Even if you lose three times, you will receive something, so it’s never a waste of time.

Crafting new cards is covered by the Fusion mode in the deckbuilder. You can use Scrap to make the cards you need for your decks. Unwanted cards can be turned into Scrap via this mode, too.

One such reward you can earn from Raids is Scrap, which is used to make new cards you may not own. You can also gain Scrap by melting down excess cards. You are likely to have many excess cards the moment you begin purchasing booster packs using Credits or real money, as you can only ever have a maximum of two copies of a card in your deck.

The deckbuilder is of your standard variety. Click cards in and out of your deck and you can right-click on cards to see them in greater detail, such as what each keyword means. The filtering system is quite basic at the moment and only allows you to filter by faction, name, and Supply cost at this time. It would be great to be able to filter by sub-type or keyword, and I’m sure the developers are likely to add this later.

A single-player arc is coming as there is an option in the store for Campaigns. There are also many cosmetic purchases you can make in addition to packs. All of these are currently unavailable in the beta version, but any packs and cards purchased will carry over to the full version, so you need not worry about making a purchase for packs in the beta version.

You can buy packs in the store using Credits (in-game currency) or real money. Purchases and cards will carry over when the game leaves beta and enters its official launch phase, so you’ll never lose your Paragon cards like this one!

First Impressions

It is easy to dismiss Star Crusade as a Hearthstone clone, but with a sci-fi theme. While there are many similarities, Star Crusade has plenty of unique selling points that give it the distinction it needs to be viewed as a stand-alone title. It will take a lot of heat for being so similar, and it definitely does feel like playing Hearthstone, at times, but I think with enough time it will stand on its own feet.

I love the way in which the battlefield background reflects the state of battle or when you deploy units. The sub-resources that are included add a new dynamic to the game that has strategic implications. I’m looking forward to seeing how a Campaign can fit into the game, though the developers have done an excellent job with the lore already, which can be viewed on their website.

This may be a controversial thing to say, but I actually enjoy playing Star Crusade more than I enjoy playing any other casual card game, including Hearthstone. Perhaps it is the fresh sci-fi theme and the fascinating design of the original alien races, or perhaps it’s the new mechanics which have reinvigorated my interest. Whatever it is, I believe Star Crusade is going to see great success. It is polished, it is well designed and the base set is full of interesting card mechanics to play around with.

Xim, Inc., the developers, are very keen on community participation for ironing out the final few bugs from their beta version of the game. The more people that download this impressive CCG, the faster any glitches are coded out, and the sooner the game can begin its final launch phase. So get in on the action now while it’s early. You won’t regret it.

For more information on Star Crusade, check out the Steam Early Access here.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/star-crusade-war-expanse/feed/10Top 10 Magic Cards in Modernhttp://tradingcardgames.com/top-10-magic-cards-modern/
http://tradingcardgames.com/top-10-magic-cards-modern/#respondTue, 08 Mar 2016 00:52:19 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=13382Surprise! Modern is very modern right now. All things are new, bannings, Eldrazi, and a recent Pro Tour really shook... Read More »

]]>Surprise! Modern is very modern right now. All things are new, bannings, Eldrazi, and a recent Pro Tour really shook everything up. Are spaghetti overlords a massive threat? Everything is up in the air. I think with so much commotion, this is a perfect time for a Top 10, specifically Top 10 Modern cards. I’m sure this article will spark up a lot of debate. Some people will love the choices, some will hate them. Feelings are high right now and the dust hasn’t yet settled. So let’s get at my Top 10 Modern cards and why I think they’re great.

NOTE: this top 10 tries to evaluate cards in a vacuum rather than their role in the current meta-game. Sometimes it won’t work as some cards are designed to be synergistic with tribal strategies. And sometimes it’ll just rate a card higher because they’re cool. Simple as that.

10. Collected Company

Oh yeah baby! It’s time to look at six and drop two on the table like it’s hot. I have to admit, Collected Company took some time to grow on me. When I first saw the card, I was like, “This might not even do anything and it costs four mana!” Boy was I wrong. It turns out that six cards are a lot, and some of the best creatures in Modern cost 3 or less.

The best part is that Collected Company opens up avenues for creature-based combo decks. It fits naturally into Elves and helps you find the key cards you’re looking for. But at the same time it’s a great fit in Abzan Company. And even non-combo based decks like Zoo have been embracing it.

And it’s no surprise to me that this card will pretty much stay in Modern forever. It’s never strong enough to ban but always relevant enough to be played. Which means, from now on and forever onwards, we’re all gonna be crazy for CoCo.

9. Liliana of the Veil

Here’s the real deal guys and gals. Liliana is the best planeswalker available in Modern. Maybe the new Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy could give her a run for her money, and he’s certainly seeing more play right now, but you can’t deny that Liliana has been around for ages and commanded threat.

There’s not much to say about Liliana really. All of its abilities are relevant and I think that’s what makes a good planeswalker. It protects itself with removal, it lets you tax your opponent and most importantly, it’s cheap. It has all the things that make a good Magic card, and the cool factor can never be ignored.

8. Thought-Knot Seer

This card is new, big and exciting, and you might argue that it should probably be even higher on the list. Look at that gloopy eye! It’s like it’s dripping custard. Man, I love custard. That alone should score it extra points. But let’s have an even closer look at this eye monstrosity.

It’s been long established that eyeballs in Magic are 4/4 creatures, so everything is correct there. And a 4/4 for four is also perfectly reasonable but nothing to write home about (in fact, if you are dating a Though-Knot Seer, definitely don’t write home about it – people will think you’re weird). But I’m in love with this cutie for its ability rather than the hunking body.

A Vendilion-Clique effect is great to begin with but this is better. They don’t get the card unless he skitters away from the battlefield. Which on its own makes this guy worth playing. But add that Eldrazi subtype and we’re cooking with gravy. The only reason this guy is at #8 is because it’s hard to say whether Eldrazi are gonna get banned or not. But even if they do, I think this guy will stick around. (Notice the number of “thought not” puns in the article = 0)

7. Scavenging Ooze

You know those Pride and Prejudice and Zombies style mashups? They should have one of those for Scavenging Ooze. Like, To Kill a Scavenging Ooze, or, Of Scavenging and Oozes. Because this card is like a mashup in itself. It’s the perfect marriage of value and versatility. A 2/2 for two is a classic, but the ability is just through the roof. It gains life, it clears graveyards and it grows bigger. It’s all you want in a green card.

Whilst graveyard strategies aren’t necessarily the cream of the crop in Modern, that’s only because cards like Scavenging Ooze keep them in check. But it’s not just about eating up an Emrakul before they hit it with Goryo’s Vengeance whilst the trigger is on the stack. It perfectly neuters infinite strategies from Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap, or simply lets you trade 1 for 1 with those cards.

But most importantly the Ooze is a threat on its own. Once you land it, your opponent will be forced to eventually deal with it. Because if it’s not kept in check – it will simply overtake the game on its own. A 2/2 isn’t a big deal, but with very little investment it can soon become a 5/5 or even bigger. To be fair, the meta game is not in a place right now where Ooze is great or really that important, but these things shift and change. The ooze will ride again. I promise.

6. Tarmogoyf

Wait a minute. Isn’t Tarmogoyf the most expensive card ever printed for Modern? Isn’t it like legendarily the best thing ever since sliced goblins? Why is it only number 6? Well, yeah, it’s expensive. It’s also really good. But it’s not number 1 material.

What the Goyf is good at is being a big dumb threat. I remember when I started playing Magic I just didn’t get what the fuss was all about. It’s just a creature. It doesn’t even do anything, just attacks or blocks. That’s it. Once I started playing a bit more competitively, I totally got it. The Goyf is immense, and it only costs two mana. For very little investment you get one of the most pro-active cards in Magic. And in a game where you’re forcing your opponent to do a lot by doing very little – well, that’s just the best.

But lately the Tarmodaddy has been getting a run for his money. Cards like Tasigur, the Golden Fang and, more importantly, Gurmag Angler can certainly present equal threats, and certainly in the case of Tasigur, it lets you utilize your mana to draw extra things. And once again, we bounce back to Eldrazi who, at the moment, can make stronger propositions. But outside of that, Tarmogoyf is a solid, solid card.

5. Kitchen Finks

Undeniably, the best creature type in Magic. Not because it’s a super powerful tribe (it’s really not), not because there’s amazing Ouphe synergy (there’s none of that, actually), but because it’s amazingly fun to say. Don’t believe me? Just say it out loud with me. Are you ready? Three, two, one… OUPHE! Now, wasn’t that just incredibly satisfying? Ignore the people staring at you. You know you’re in the right.

Cards are great when they give you value, and you might think something that destroys your kitchen is the opposite of that (seriously, have you renovated recently? Kitchens ain’t cheap). But that’s not the kind of value we’re talking about. The body on this adorable Ouphe is perfect, great at attacking, great at defending. And he just keeps coming back. So few removal spells take care of this guy efficiently.

But wait, he’s also a part of an infinite life combo with Melira or Anafenza. That’s what really seals the deal on this destructive maniac. The only thing that I don’t get is – why is destroying your kitchen a life-gain ability? Just doesn’t make any sense.

4. Chord of Calling

I always always loved Chord. It’s an enabler for an entire archetype. Rather than jamming your deck with four copies of each card to promote consistency, we have a chord of gluing that lets you have a salad of eclectic one-offs that present answers to many questions posed by your opponent. You don’t need to draw any of them – you just need to draw Chord.

Not only that, but Chord offers an avenue for various creature-based combos. Whether it’s Kitchen Finks + Melira or Archangel of Thune + Spikefeeder or any other kind of infinite shenanigans – it’s all there at the strum of a chord.

But what I like most about Chord of Calling is that it promotes high skill play. Pilots of any kind of Chord deck should know their deck very well. If you’re presented with numerous options then you have to be able to identify what the right card is for any given potential situation (and there’s probably an infinite number of potential situations in Magic).

3. Cavern of Souls

Lands. I love lands. I think they are the coolest cards in Magic (yes, cooler than planeswalkers) because they have the most potential to be broken. Just look at all the awesome lands printed in Magic’s history. Strip Mine, Ancient Tomb, Cloud Post, Karakas. As time went on, Wizards got more careful about what lands can do and the lands we get in Modern aren’t as broken as the ones that came before them. But what we have is also pretty good.

I like Caverns because the card promotes something very specific and does it really well. It fixes colours, but restricts you to a creature type. And it makes a tribal strategy stronger against control type decks. They are already vulnerable to wrath type effects and Cavern doesn’t deny that to control players. It’s just an incredibly elegant design and everything Cavern does, it does for a reason.

And in theory, as long as there isn’t a broken tribal strategy, the card is incredibly balanced. However, when talking about tribal strategies right now we can’t ignore the fact that we have Eldrazi and that’s what takes Caverns completely over the top.

2. Cranial Plating

We all have a cranium, but if we think about it – none of us are really Wolverine. This card, however, this can make you Wolverine. We have loads of amazing equipment available in Modern – Swords, Batterskull and even Skullclamp… NO WAIT! That last one is definitely banned. But Cranial Plating is probably the best piece of equipment in Modern and here’s why.

On the face of it, Cranial Plating is very simple. It doesn’t have any fancy value abilities like a Sword of Feast and Famine. It doesn’t have any recursion like Batterskull. But most importantly it is super cheap, and its Attach ability makes it incredibly unavoidable.

The downside of Cranial Plating is that it really only works in one deck and that deck is Affinity. But it doesn’t just work, it pretty much makes the deck (together with Arcbound Ravager). I’ve played my fair share of games against Affinity and each time Cranial Plating landed on the table I instantly had that “uh-oh” moment, desperately trying to figure out how to deal with it. Unless I have an infinite supply of chump-blockers or an incredibly sizable board presence, I know that there’s not much I can do if it survives.

1. Eye of Ugin

It’s funny how things change isn’t it? Two months ago this card wouldn’t have scratched the Top 10. Sure, it saw play as a one-off in Tron decks but it was hardly impressive as it gave a discount to cards that cost 10 mana to begin with and was only ever there to give inevitability to the deck with its search ability. But this new wave of Eldrazi was costed a lot more reasonably.

Now here’s the thing. Mana discounts are one of the most busted things in Magic. Look at how long it took before Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time got banned pretty much in every Eternal format.

You see, it’s all in the maths. If I can do a 4 mana thing on turn two and you’re doing your 4 mana thing on turn four – I clearly have an advantage. But if you follow Modern at all, I don’t really need to explain what’s going on to you right now – free Eldrazi Mimics followed by turn two Thought-Knot Seers is proving very hard to beat and just incredibly crippling. Things might change. Eye of Ugin might or might not get banned. But for the time being – it is undeniably number one.

So here’s my Top 10. Some controversial choices I know. Some of them are based on meta and some not at all, but rather looking at the broader picture that has been Modern for the last four years. But mostly they’re just cards that I love to play or love to play against. Simple as that.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/top-10-magic-cards-modern/feed/0Storm Wars – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/storm-wars-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/storm-wars-early-preview/#respondThu, 03 Mar 2016 19:16:51 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=13358Storm Wars is a collectible card game set in a fantasy world of Elves, Orcs, Machines, and many other races.... Read More »

]]>Storm Wars is a collectible card game set in a fantasy world of Elves, Orcs, Machines, and many other races. The game uses casual card battle mechanics that make it accessible and very easy to learn. Storm Wars is currently still in its alpha stage of development, so there will be plenty of improvements and updates to come.

Will Storm Wars be one to watch? Read on to find out…

Storm Wars is a new casual card battle game from Zom.bio, Inc. The simple game mechanics will appeal to beginners of the genre.

Gameplay

First impressions count for a huge deal when you play a new game, though arguably less so if it is in early development stages. Storm Wars, however, was able to impress me despite being incomplete and in alpha. Visually the game is well polished with a clean and crisp user interface, beautiful card art, and excellent visual effects.

You’re introduced to the story through some brief dialogues that give you some backstory as to why you’re battling it out with the other races of the realm. Then you’ll swing straight into the battle, and no tutorial is given or required as the battle system is entirely automated.

The objective is to reduce the enemy Hero’s life points to zero with your Army. Your Army comprises of cards that have attack and health values of their own, and many will also have special effects which influence the outcome of the battle. Each card also comes with a timer value which is the number of turns that unit must wait until it deploys on the battlefield.

On each player’s turn, one card is drawn from their deck. Unit cards will wait their allotted number of turns and will then automatically deploy to the battlefield. They will then attack the opposite unit each turn or the opposing Hero if there is no card opposite, except a few cards that attack random units. This is your typical casual card battle system with no control over what happens once the battle begins, so if you’re not a fan of this style, you may not enjoy Storm Wars.

You may have to replay campaign battles many times before you win. There is a huge element of randomness to the fully-automated battles.

Gameplay Continued…

Your only chance to show off your strategic and tactical flair is through the deckbuilding process before combat. As your collection of cards grows, you can customize your deck to suit a particular theme, race, or to take advantage of specific abilities. Limiting yourself by race will earn you some sweet rewards, but the better power play is to use the most powerful and highest utility cards you have.

Storm Wars is such an easy game to play that you can almost forgive the lack of input during battles. Speed controls allow you to speed up or slow down the action at your leisure, though I don’t know why you’d ever want to slow it down. The deckbuilding process is simple and works like many others in that you only need to click cards in and out of the deck.

I did find that a lot of the battles in the campaign mode are won or lost at random. Winning or losing would all depend on whether you draw the right cards at the right time. You may need to repeat battles several times before you can win and yet not have changed a single thing about your deck. There is very little drawback to this, other than depleted energy – though I never ran out of this.

You are encouraged to replay completed mission arcs in the campaign to unlock more Heroes that can head up your deck. I strongly advise that you spend some time to do this, as your starting Hero isn’t powerful enough to take on many of the later campaign missions.

Currency acquisition is speedy, with each completed battle giving you plenty of coins (soft currency) and experience points. In some instances, you can receive special prizes such as cards, gems (premium currency), and other beneficial items. Not many casual card battlers are as fair and generous as Storm Wars, and I hope this continues into the full release.

Storm Wars is very generous with its in-game currencies. You can earn them at a decent speed which will ensure you keep up with other players in PvP, while also helping get through the harder campaign missions.

Features

Storm Wars has a campaign to battle through that has an unfolding story with each new battle. The map is beautifully designed and has some excellent visual and weather effects. All of the missions are selected from here, as are the options and game shop for more card packs.

Editing your Army can be done before each battle. This quick access to your deck is something that I found to be useful if I lost a battle so I could then edit my Army quickly in preparation for my retry. Your cards are separated by race and can be filtered in various ways to aid you in creating a deck that fits with your strategy.

Many different prizes can be won after each battle, and these can be found in the Treasure menu on the main options screen. The inclusion of additional prizes and challenges gives you the motivation required for extended periods of play – because everyone loves freebies and achievements!

Bounties are the PvP offering of Storm Wars. This mode plays just like a campaign battle where you’ll face off against another player’s deck which is also fully automated. You, once again, just have to hope that you get the right cards at the right time to be able to win the battle. If you have a powerful deck, you are more likely to win and collect Crowns which shows other players your ‘skill’ level.

You can test your might in the Gauntlet after you have collected 200 Crowns. In the Gauntlet you’ll face off against up to 100 opponents and Gems are awarded to the players who have acquired the most Trophies from their victories. The effort can be worth it as many of the premium packs in the card shop require Gems to purchase them.

Despite being an alpha build, Storm Wars is visually impressive. From the beautiful campaign map to the detailed card art, everything looks amazing so far.

First Impressions

Storm Wars looks very impressive for an alpha build. The simple casual card battle mechanics are going to appeal to those that prefer this style of gameplay. However, players looking for something highly strategic will not find it with Storm Wars. That said, as a break from games that require intense thinking, Storm Wars should fit the bill.

I encountered zero bugs in the alpha version despite being warned that there may be some, and I find this to be very encouraging. It shows that there is attention to the finer details and that the developers aren’t overly reliant on their testers to catch all the bugs.

Storm Wars should fit into the genre very well and has plenty to offer the casual gaming crowd. There is a lot of competition, but many players are tired of overpriced in-game purchases. Storm Wars’ fair pricing and decent acquisition of in-game currency will give it an edge over competitors.

]]>Dragon Front is an upcoming CCG developed exclusively for the new Virtual Reality headset device, the Oculus Rift. Produced by Oculus Studios and developed by High Voltage Software, Dragon Front appears to be taking on the Hearthstone style of digital card games but as a fully 3D, virtual experience. There’s no release date yet except for the tentative “later this year” answer as given by the developers.

Set in a hybrid fantasy/steampunk world of monsters, magic, and machines, the game promises a fully-realized strategy card game, with 280 characters, 80 different encampments, and more than 100 spells. Details on gameplay and mechanics are far and few between right now, but I’ve taken a very close look at the trailer and extracted all the hidden clues present to build a fuller picture for you.

So let’s dive in and see what this intriguing new title has for us! Read on…

Yes, it’s fully 3D, and you can look around in every direction… Or can you?

Gameplay

My first impressions are that we do not have a Hearthstone clone on our hands here, thankfully. There is ample evidence in the video to show that things are very different here, even if a lot of the concepts are similar. The developers would not have done well to simply mirror the Hearthstone format since we’ve had more than enough clones now and are beyond oversaturated in this genre with those types of games. The developers have a chance here to use the VR tech in a unique way, so I hope that their game design is similarly innovative. There are some clues that this is the case.

Firstly, there is a 4×4 grid which is used as the battlefield, with a front and back row for each player. This already sets it apart from Hearthstone by making it much more reliant on positioning and allowing for ranged attacks from the rear rows. One of the cards you can see in the trailer has an effect to do with hitting units with a ranged attack, so I’m guessing it’s possible to attack units even if you’re not directly in contact with them. We also see “Deathrattle”-style effects: in the image below, we see a unit’s ability trigger when other units die. That should make for some interesting combos and plays.

Viewing a card is fully 3D, and you can peer around inside the card as if a window into a box where the character is moving around. Is it just a gimmick?

Players each have a fortress which functions as their life counter. It’s currently unclear how units are able to damage the fortress directly if there are units in the way on the battlefield, but it’s possible that you have to attack through two clear slots to hit the fortress directly, or perhaps it takes damage somehow when your units die. We’ll have to wait and see.

Each faction has a unique legendary champion unit which can be summoned. Undoubtedly they are going to be extremely powerful, but that’s not all — an interesting piece of info we have is that the champion gets cheaper to summon the closer to death you are. This is a great catch-up mechanic, or at least ensures that the final moments of a battle are momentous indeed.

Decks are built to a 30-card specification exactly, from a range of available units, battlefield-modifying constructions and also instant spells. The battlefield modifications, called fortifications, are shown to have either buffing or hindering abilities, so you can use them to enhance your own battlefield or obstruct your opponent’s. One of the fortification cards has a “trap” effect, showing that the opponent will have no idea what it actually does until they summon a unit onto that square. I love this idea of trap fortifications — let the shenanigans begin!

The field of view seems to be quite limited to just panning left and right. This isn’t too remarkable when VR is supposed to take advantage of a 360-degree view. I do hope there’s more to it than just this.

Features

So what do we know so far about what’s going to be included in the game itself? Well, we know that there are going to be different factions, each with their own cards and legendary champion unit that can be summoned. There will be two factions at launch, with a few more already in the works. It’s to be expected that the various factions will focus on different strategies and play styles while also having a unique visual look or theme to them, hopefully.

With over 260 cards at launch, that’s a pretty decent-sized base set to begin building with, especially as they’re claiming they only belong to two factions so far (and likely some neutral-type cards as well). We’ve also been told that they’re working on the next few updates of downloadable content, with new factions, champions and even new landscapes to play on. I’d love the addition of more battlefields, because the same one can start to get a bit boring after a while.

We don’t have much info about play modes other than 1v1 is the only mode planned so far, so no crazy 3+ multiplayer battles just yet. Also, there are likely to be leaderboards and tournaments of some kind, we just don’t know yet. There will definitely be card crafting and deconstruction though, as seen in the trailer. This should help free-to-play players build a broader collection over time, but let’s hope the crafting rates are less oppressive than those that Hearthstone has come to have.

The developers first prototyped the game on paper, which is a good sign that they’ve made sure to have a working game design before trying to implement it digitally.

First Impressions

It’s exciting to hear that a CCG is going to be one of the first titles available on the Oculus platform, and we’re acutely looking forward to exploring the game in further depth!

The game certainly looks impressive, but I’m not convinced that it’s using the VR tech to the fullest. Being able to look into the card frames or tilt the battlefield a bit is certainly cool, but nothing that couldn’t be done just by tilting a phone or tablet. I’m hoping they’ll truly take this opportunity to do more with it, perhaps by taking you down to the battlefield itself, among your units where you can look all around you, including behind you. That would be awesome.

Similarly, while it may be too early to pass judgement entirely, the game design looks solid but is nothing groundbreaking in terms of new mechanics or ideas. There appear to be a lot of derivative elements with maybe one or two interesting implementations of those elements. It comes across as a very “safe” choice of CCG, which is eager to please and be commercially successful without taking too many risks in game design or mechanics. That’s OK, and it’s likely going to be a huge success — but I doubt it’s going to replace any of the juggernauts of the genre anytime soon or be considered anything particularly groundbreaking outside of its VR gimmick.

I’m still excited to check this out, as I’m hopeful that the next generation of VR tech is going to open up some spectacular possibilities in all genres of gaming. Whatever the outcome, Dragon Front will forever be known as the first Virtual Reality CCG. Let’s hope it’s a good one!

Outcast Odyssey is part casual card battle and part dungeon crawler from Magic Pixel Games and Bandai Namco, a publisher famous for games such as Pac Man and Soul Calibur (both of which have character cards featured in Outcast Odyssey).

The game gained some early traction among players when it was first soft-launched back in 2014, and received high praise from those that played it. Time to see what all the fuss was about!

Is Outcast Odyssey a worthwhile download, or should you save that precious storage space for something better? Read on to find out…

The game is certainly flashy, but is there substance beneath the sheen?

GAMEPLAY

As a first foray into the casual card battle genre, you can’t go too wrong with Outcast Odyssey. The brief tutorial gives you the knowledge needed to play the game and the level of difficulty scales in proportion to your progress. However, there are some tougher side-quests in addition to the main bulk of the campaign.

Outcast Odyssey‘s campaign requires you to explore areas and uncover tiles by tapping on the screen. Most taps will reveal more terrain while some taps will reveal a chest of loot, creatures to battle, magic energy, or coins to add to your collection. Many of the creature battles are necessary to advance your exploration, but some are optional as they make no difference to your progress. The exploration mechanic itself is actually quite enjoyable, and probably my favorite thing about the game overall.

Moving around the map is an enjoyable activity in itself, but not enough to carry the whole game.

The battles are more complex than the exploration, but not by much. You have three Realms of combat: Magic, Tech, and Nature. Magic beats Tech, Tech beats Nature, and Nature beats Magic. The cards you use in combat can also be from any of these Realms and will deal additional damage to your enemy if it hits a node in which it beats the element. Each node also has numbers, which is the number of hits it can take before you reveal its weak spot. You can hit the weak spot with any of your cards for massive damage, but only once.

Many of the battles are over very quickly and as your level (and that of your cards) increases, they become even shorter, making the gameplay incredibly addictive. It is very easy to get drawn into the game and play for many hours at a time without realizing. There are no energy systems to account for, and the only thing that can slow you down is your health, which replenishes over time.

If you do fall in battle, you can use a Potion to restore all of your lost health and can continue your battles and exploration as if nothing happened. If you fall to a creature, it will retain the damage you had dealt it before you died. Sure, you may have to buy Potions in the store, but you can do so with the Coins (soft currency) and Gems (premium currency) you earn from your exploration of the maps.

Much of what Outcast Odyssey has to offer can be found in many other casual card battlers, though there aren’t that many as polished as this one. The artwork on the cards is fantastic and have a 3D movement to them when you physically tilt your device. The user interface is simple and bright with all of the game’s key modes available to you at the tap of a finger.

There is a little bit of thinking about which nodes to hit and in what order, but not a whole lot.

MODES AND FEATURES

You will want to explore Outcast Odyssey’s Campaign mode before any of the others. The Campaign is split up into different islands that you need to explore fully before moving on to the next. When you do explore an island fully, you are rewarded with a card that is well worth the effort you put into your explorations. In addition to this, your battles on each of the islands may yield more cards that you can add to your decks.

The cards in your deck are also split up into distinct groups. First you have your Hero Card, which is the leader of the deck. It will be the first card to attack and you can equip it with one Weapon Card and one Armor Card. The Weapon and Armor cards add attack and special effects to your deck that may trigger during battle. In addition to your Hero Card, you can have two Pet Cards that also attack your opponent.

The key statistic that all of these cards contribute to is your total health. The higher your health, the more battles you will be able to complete before needing to use a Potion. To have more health, you are going to need to enhance, evolve, or collect more powerful cards to add to your deck.

Enhancing cards is easy, and it’s a mechanic most should be familiar with by now. Feed lesser cards to the one you wish to enhance to improve its attack value (and in this instance, the health it provides to you). Combining two of the same card together is how you evolve them. Evolution increases the base values for that card and will often result in a new picture for the evolved card. You will want to do this with two maximum enhanced cards for the best results.

Hey, it’s Pacman! I bet he’s real hungry… Let’s feed him.

If you want some PvP action, you can take to the Arena. Here you battle it out with the Defensive Deck of another player and winning will earn Honor points in addition to climbing a few places on the leaderboard. Defensive Decks work in much the same way as your main deck, but it will be your health and effects the opponent fights against instead of the individual cards, so ensuring you are strong will guarantee you don’t lose leaderboard places quickly.

There are numerous ways to earn many of the game’s currencies and components, such as Potions. You can get these from Daily, Weekly, and Epic achievements. The easiest ways to obtain these is through your casual play, though you can check out the requirements of each if you’re after a particular reward. Social elements of the game include an Inbox, where you can receive gifts and messages, and a standard Guild feature.

Outcast Odyssey features a couple of extra play modes that can extend your enjoyment of the game. The Tower is a way to test your skills in battle against increasingly difficult opponents. Reaching particular levels of the Tower will earn a reward. Bounties are a guaranteed reward mechanic that function in the same way as the Campaign. Explore an area to find some materials and then claim your reward on completion.

The fact that Outcast Odyssey is so rich in features is a testament to just how much effort went into delivering a quality title. The addictive gameplay also helps to keep you coming back for more.

The leveling and evolving is one of the most addictive things the game has got going for it.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

We’ve already covered much of the deckbuilding aspects of Outcast Odyssey. You fill your deck with three fighting cards: one Hero and two Pets. You can equip your Hero with a Weapon and Armor that can deliver added effects in battle, such as the ability to negate damage or to deal more damage with a poison effect.

Your Defensive Deck is laid out in the same way. The only difference is that your cards do not interact with theirs during the battle. Instead, the screen will look the same as if they were facing off against a creature in any of the game’s other modes. Keeping the Defensive Deck strong should be a priority if you do not wish to lose leaderboard places as quickly as you earn them.

Outcast Odyssey lacks strategic depth, and this is due to the simple gameplay mechanics. Minimal effort is required to defeat opponents as you only need to remember which Realms to attack with against other Realms. If you can’t remember, the game provides a wheel showing them in the top right of each battle screen.

Your health is the only thing you need to pay close attention to throughout the course of your play time. Losing all your health while you have no Potions will require you to wait for it to replenish fully before you can battle again. However, taking a break for a short while isn’t a bad thing at all.

There are some bonus characters from other franchises which is a treat to see in the game. This is a character from the Soul Calibur fighting series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There is no question that Bandai Namco have delivered an excellent casual card battle game in Outcast Odyssey. As a casual card battle game, it should be forgiven for having some of the stale, old components that feature in many of the games in its genre, as they are not exclusive to Outcast Odyssey. There also exist very few ways to remove these elements from such games.

Outcast Odyssey sets you up to believe that there is a lot of depth to its gameplay early on. The truth is that it uses the same, tired click-to-win mechanics that require you to do not much more than tap on the screen while the game does the rest. It does make the gameplay very straightforward and easy to understand, once you’ve wrapped your head around the Realms, but not all that satisfying.

If you take the game for what it is, a simple, easy to learn, and hard to put down game then you will come to the same conclusion that I have – Outcast Odyssey is definitely one of the best casual card games available for the genre.

The Good: Accessible gameplay for all ages and experience levels. | Fun and addictive gameplay style.

The Bad: Gameplay may be too simple for some. | Progressing in the Quest mode is not rewarding enough.

Platforms: iOS, Android

Cost: Free to play with in-app purchases.

A distinctive theme will often help to give a game a louder voice in an overcrowded genre. We’ve already reviewed quite a few games that would have otherwise gone unnoticed had it not been for their theme – this is particularly the case for games that sit in the casual card battle genre.

Fruitcraft is one such casual card battle game that employs a unique theme to get your attention. Getting your attention is one thing, but maintaining it is another. There also needs to be some excellent gameplay beneath the thematic exterior for players to continue playing.

Is there substance to this cute, fruit-inspired casual card battler? Read on to find out…

Get ready to take fruit and vegetables into battle as you fight your way through many quests and player battles in this casual card battler.

GAMEPLAY

In Fruitcraft, you assume the role of a new General who has been recruited to stop the evil Dracula, also a fruit. That’s the basic story of the game, and the game doesn’t build upon it other than the fact that you need to battle your way through some grueling quests with a final boss at the end. It’s a shame that the game fails to build a decent story, but given the light theme, it is not surprising.

Gameplay is very simple and after a short tutorial that shows you the ropes, you can dive right in. Fruitcraft uses the standard casual card battle formula that sees your cards face off against the opponent’s, attacking automatically until all cards on one team are squashed into a fruit puree.

The cards contain pictures of cutely drawn fruits and vegetables that may hold a weapon or two… Not so cute after all! There are only two statistics to work with, which keeps the game simple enough for younger players. Power represents both the attack value and health of the card. The attack value of an opposing card is subtracted from your card when it attacks an opponent’s card. The damage is shared between your cards when you have more than one in the line-up.

Fruitcraft‘s battle mechanics are some of the simplest on offer, making it accessible to almost anybody.

The second statistic is a wait timer. When your cards attack, they must wait an allotted time before they can battle again. Low rarity cards have short timers, whereas your higher rarity, more powerful cards have longer timers extending into minutes. Fruitcraft prides itself on lacking the frustrating energy system that many casual card battlers have, but the timer pretty much replaces it — so it’s not entirely free of waiting times.

Fruitcraft is one of the most simplistic card games you are likely to come across, and because of this, it makes it somewhat addictive. You will find yourself playing battle after battle in the Quest and Battle modes just to earn the necessary experience required to level up and unlock new features.

The game features an excellent user interface with everything you need at the tap of a finger. The graphics aren’t amazing, but are consistent throughout and stick to the overall theme of the game. The music and sound effects aren’t bad either. In fact, when you battle, you are treated to realistic squishing sounds with every attack that makes it delightfully fun.

As you level up, you will open up new features — giving you the incentive to continue playing for extended periods of time.

MODES AND FEATURES

Fruitcraft is relatively rich in features that extend the play time. A decent number of these are unlocked as you level up, which provides the incentive needed to continue playing beyond the initial quests.

The Quest mode is full of battles that you can take part in to earn Gold and experience points at a slow rate. These battles are quite easy, and you can breeze through most of these in no time at all. However, due to the sheer number of battles in each Quest, it will take you a while to get to the final boss. You’ll probably spend as little time as possible playing the Quest mode simply because it offers little in the way of player rewards.

If you want to earn Gold and experience at an accelerated rate, you will need to take part in player battles via the Battle mode. In this mode, you play against another player’s strongest four cards, which can be enhanced if they’re in a Tribe. There is no A.I. to worry about as the game pre-selects the best cards from the opponent’s collection and you then just sit back and watch the fruits go at it.

The way in which Fruitcraft’s PvP works is rather non-interactive. Being part of a Tribe gives you access to buffing up your attack and defense cards and not much more. If you are a part of a tribe or have started your own, each win you earn against fellow players will also contribute to enhancing your Tribe’s rank in addition to your own. Live player battles are on offer, but these are few and far between.

Evolving and Enhancing cards are the best ways to improve the power of your team. You can buy more fruit packs at the in-game store, but you’re not guaranteed powerful cards.

In addition to enhancing your attack and defense through a Tribe, you can also improve the power of your fruit warriors through other means. The first method, which opens up relatively quickly, is the Enhance option. Using this, you sacrifice other cards to improve the target card, and this adds to the card’s overall power while not increasing the wait time. The second is to Evolve a card, which works by combining two of the same card at the same level to increase its power, level, and wait time.

I would recommend you do more of the former and less of the latter if you want to be able to play fast and take part in many battles without waiting. Increasing the wait time can be detrimental when you need more fruits to attack a stronger opponent. However, if you have a vast collection of fruit, you will want to use the latter option as it will give you a much more powerful fruit force.

Unwanted fruits can be put to work in the mines to earn you additional Gold per hour (What is this, fruit slavery?! Hilariously bizarre). Gold is the only currency in the game and is given as a reward in all of the game’s modes. The more you have, the more Evolutions, Enhancements, and fruit card packs you can buy from the store. You can also purchase Gold as an in-app purchase, and the prices aren’t too bad.

Fruitcraft features another way for you to earn cards. There is an auction system where other players put up their unwanted fruit cards for auction and players can bid on them. Many of the cards on offer will be of a high level and very expensive, but if you’ve got the Gold, it might be an excellent way to snag a powerful card to buff up your attack or defense stats.

Choose your team before every battle. Some fruits may be on cool-down because you recently used them. This replaces the energy system used in a majority of casual card games.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

There is no need to build a deck in Fruitcraft. Before each battle, you can choose up to four available fruit from your entire collection to take part. If a card is waiting, you can pay Gold to have it ready immediately for that battle. In the early stages of the game, you can afford this in almost every fight. Later on, as your cards increase in power, this will become far more expensive.

As I have suggested already, you should focus on Enhancing as many of your early-game fruits as you can. Enhancing your cards gives you a significant advantage in the Quest mode. In the Battle mode, you can Scout an enemy player’s camp to see what their power level is. Most of the time, you will be able to guess how powerful they are from the structures that they have and how much wealth is on display.

As your player rank increases, you will be able to battle against much tougher opponents in the Battle mode. The harder the battle, the more experience you will earn if you win.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fruitcraft is a well-designed, fun and addictive casual card battler. What it lacks in strategic depth it makes up for in personality thanks to its fun, fruity theme. The theme will help it stand out in the crowd, as most casual card games tend to focus on anime style characters and over-the-top visual effects. In doing so, they all look the same, and it can be hard to tell them apart.

That said, there really isn’t much here in terms of interesting card mechanics. The gameplay is overly simplistic, and this is likely to disappoint many if not most strategy card gamers.

That said, the simplistic gameplay mechanics have ensured that Fruitcraft is open to any and all audiences of any age and experience level. It should keep kids entertained for hours at a time and for those of us who are more seasoned card gamers, it might be a light-hearted diversion from the intense battles in our usual TCGs/CCGs.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/review/fruitcraft/feed/0How to Play Shaman Class – Hearthstone Strategy Guide 2.0http://tradingcardgames.com/how-to-play-shaman-class-hearthstone-strategy-guide-2-0/
http://tradingcardgames.com/how-to-play-shaman-class-hearthstone-strategy-guide-2-0/#respondSun, 28 Feb 2016 18:28:03 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=13137Introduction Welcome to the Hearthstone corner. Shaman has not been the most popular character in Ranked play for a long time,... Read More »

Welcome to the Hearthstone corner. Shaman has not been the most popular character in Ranked play for a long time, making it necessary for Blizzard to release powerful cards for the class with each new expansion. Despite all these efforts, he remains one of the weaker characters — although with many excellent cards, including some of the best early-game Minions. Nowadays he tends to be played aggressively.

I am going to start by listing some of the best class-specific cards for this class, and then we will look at crafting. I won’t forget to mention the usefulness of each expansion and the cards they add to the available pool. The next section will deal with playing Shaman as a starting character — I will show you a strong deck that I have made using only basic cards. The last section will deal with the various types of Shaman decks that are to be found on the Ladder nowadays, and I will also say a little bit about the Arena.

Here we go!

Shamans don’t tend to run Reincarnate much, but this gimmicky deck is one of the most fun decks that I have ever played in Hearthstone. What’s better than a Kel’Thuzad? Three Kel’Thuzads!

What Does a Shaman Want?

Shaman’s hero power is one of the main reasons why this class can be a bit weak. It is the only character in the game whose hero power gives a random outcome, and aggressive decks find no use for Totems in general. Especially in Arena, the hero power can be a bit of a problem.

Nevertheless, Shamans have access to some great cards. Let’s have a look at them.

Tunnel Trogg is a fantastic turn 1 card that can significantly grow if not removed. It synergizes with Overload cards that Shamans regularly play – namely Totem Golem and FeralSpirit. This can make the first few turns very strong for a Shaman player. The best thing about TunnelTrogg is that he gains a point of damage for each Overloaded crystal – not each time that an Overload effect comes into play.

Totem Golem has amazing stats for a 2 Mana Minion – it can take out practically any other 2 Mana Minion in the game and stay on board another turn.

Whirling Zap-o-matic is an aggressive Minion – it can do 6 points of damage each turn, making it an important card for aggressive Mech Shaman decks. Rockbiter Weapon synergizes with this Minion nicely – granting an extra 6 points of damage.

Fireguard Destroyer is very powerful for a turn 4 Minion – especially if you get lucky and gain 3 or 4 damage from its Battlecry. This is another Shaman Minion that can be a lot stronger this early in the game than anything that the opponent will be able to play.

Fire Elemental‘s stats are acceptable for the Mana cost, but it’s the Battlecry that counts. It can take out smaller Minions, finish wounded Minions, and bypass Taunts. Having a higher attack power than health is also nice as there are several widely played Minions with 6 health that he can take out.

Feral Spirit can be expensive if played on turn 3 (even more so on turn 2 with the coin) as it limits the Shaman to using only 2 Mana crystals the next turn. This can be really bad for tempo, but some Shaman cards take advantage of Overload effects. And then there is also Lava Shock.

Flametongue Totem works best when put together with a board full of Minions. It can also make the standard 4 Totems created by the hero power more useful. It’s usually enough of a threat to warrant a removal from the opponent.

In this deck, I get to use almost every way of buffing my Minions. What’s better than a Flametongue Totem? You guessed it – three Flametongue Totems.

Bloodlustis in a similar category – the more Minions it buffs, the better. Most frequently this card will function as a finisher in a Shaman deck. Pairing it with something like a Dr. Boom played the previous turn can surprise the opponent.

When it comes to Weapons, Shamans use Powermaceand Doomhammer. Powermaceis strong on its own, and the Deathrattle synergizes with Piloted Shredders who get played in almost every deck. In a Mech deck, this Weapon becomes even stronger as it is not necessary to plan when to unleash its Deathrattle.

Doomhammer benefits greatly from the Windfury – it can remove two low health Minions or take out Divine Shielded Minions. Add to that a Rockbiter Weapon and you have a match made in Hearthstone heaven. But beware opponents with Harrison Jones.

Shamans have a lot of damage dealing spells. Lightning Storm is on the weaker side as a source of AOE damage, but it will do great against a Zoo Warlock’s full board or an Aggro Paladin’s token-infested board.

Lightning Bolt and more often Crackleare there to remove enemy Minions and deal damage – they deal a fair amount for their cost.

Earth Shock doesn’t do a lot of damage, but it is Shaman’s only source of a Silence. Used against a Twilight Drake it is an instant kill.

Hexis one of the best removal spells in the game. It not only gets rid of the Minion – it also disregards any Deathrattle effects. This makes Shaman one of the very few classes to be able todispose of Minions like Tyrion Fordring or Sylvanas Windrunnerpainlessly.

Al’Akir the Windlord isn’t the strongest Legendary Minion in the game as its stats are low, and it tends to be removed easily or reduced to its small body by a Silence. But it works well as a finisher if paired with Rockbiter Weapon or Flametongue Totem. If you happen to play Reincarnate, you get twice the fun out of the Charge and Windfury effects.

Neptulonis an amazing Legendary for slower decks as it is both a strong late-game Minion and an excellent source of cards. The Murlocs that he draws for the player will fill the board for the next turn or two, and they will frequently synergize together. No need for any further Murlocs in the deck for Neptulonto be worthwhile.

Al’Akir works best in finishing games. The more buffed he is, the better. What’s better than a single buff I hear you ask? Let me tell you…

What About Those Neutral Minions?

Let’s have a look at the best Neutral Minions for a Shaman player.

Classic

Defender of Argus (Shamans tend to play a lot of Minions, not to mention Totems, which makes the buff very useful)

When people play Brann Bronzebeard, you know that it needs to be dealt with. Because what comes next is a stream of Minions with Battlecry. Azure Drake, Dr. Boom, Abusive Sergeant. What’s worse than leaving Brann alive for a single turn? Leaving him there for three. And lots of other things.

To Craft or Not to Craft

With all of the Hearthstone expansions that are available, it makes sense to prioritize. With Shamans, this can be a bit problematic as there are strong cards in almost every expansion.

When choosing which expansions to pursue, it’s helpful to think about the type of deck that you are going for. Mech Shamans have an easy job – GvG is the place to go. Midrange and Face Shamans have a harder time – the cards that make these decks strong are spread out all over the expansions so it may take a while to collect them all.

As far as crafting goes, I tend only to craft Legendary (and to a lesser extent, Epic) cards, always starting with strong Neutral Legendaries. Given that the most useful Shaman cards are in so many Expansions, this character may be the one where it makes sense to craft cards of a lower rarity. That is if you want to specialize in playing Shaman. Having an idea as to which cards would be most useful in the type of deck that you want to play is a lot of help. You should also have a look at how many wings of an Adventure you need to unlock to get the cards that you want. Sometimes it can be a big investment.

Now we will have a look at a basic deck that will hold its own against players with a bigger card collection.

Starting Shaman Deck

As soon as you make it to level 10 with Shaman, you will have access to all of the necessary cards. This deck is strong enough to give you a chance against players with larger card collections so that you can amass a collection of your own to continue the climb. Replace cards with better ones as you get access to them.

This basic deck works best with a full board. There are numerous cards here that take advantage of a higher number of Minions. And what does Frostwolf Warlord like more than a single Minion on his side of the board? No less than four Minions.

Neutral

This deck takes advantage of Shaman’s class power and aims to play a lot of Minions and Totems, buffing them to gain an advantage on the board and then finish using Bloodlust. While it’s better to play Minions early in the game, as soon as the board is at least a little bit secure, Totems created by the hero power can start coming too. Flametongue Totem and Raid Leader, as well as Rockbiter Weapon, will allow you to take out bigger enemy Minions. It’s not a good idea to use any of these buffs early in the game to damage the enemy hero directly. This deck is not fast enough to be played aggressively, and it’s better to wait with buffs until you get something out of using them. Stormwind Champion is another useful buff inducing Minion, this one comes into play in the late game and buffs the entire board.

Shattered Sun Cleric is another way to make favourable trades. It’s best to play it so that it surprises your opponent on the same turn rather than preparing a situation that he can play around.

Frostwolf Warlordis another way to take advantage of a large number of Minions – as soon as you have two other Minions on the board, he starts being cheap for his stats. With this deck, you should aim to have him as large as possible.

Fire Elementalis one of the best Minions in the game – the damage that it deals can bypass Taunts and take out or finish enemy Minions.

It’s best to keep Hexuntil it’s needed – wasting it early in the game when playing against a deck full of late-game Minions can cost you the game. The best thing about Hexis that it discards Deathrattles too.

The last card worth mentioning is Acidic Swamp Ooze, probably my favourite basic card. Against classes that play Weapons – Warriors, Paladins, Hunters, Rogues, and some Shamans, this Minion will work wonders. It’s a good idea to keep this Minion in your hand until it can take care of a troublesome Weapon. Figuring out which Weapons are common in different decks is a good skill to develop for its proper use. Against characters who don’t have access to Weapons, this is a standard turn 2 drop.

Look What I Found on the Internet

Shaman has had a hard time competing against other characters until all of the strong cards that he has received in each expansion stacked up.

Murloc Shaman doesn’t work. Really, trust me. But when he goes up against a Murloc Paladin, and you happen to have Old Murk-Eye… Well, then it’s great to have a lot of Murlocs on the other side of the field. And what’s better than a single Murloc?

Mech Shaman appeared from the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion – an aggressive deck that plays various Mech synergies, including the unyielding Powermace. With Minions like Whirling Zap-o-matic, this deck could do a lot of damage very quickly. Added to that were several strong damage-dealing spells that could finish games. A little later Fel Reaver started appearing in these decks and with a lot of success. This deck is not as popular as it used to be, as it counts on finishing games quickly and runs out of cards against decks that are good at surviving. Given how popular Reno Jackson is, as well as Brann Bronzebeard and Antique Healbot combos, this deck may have a hard time finishing in time. Playing against it, it’s best to be aggressive in removing enemy Minions and watch your life total carefully. Surviving for long enough is the way to go unless you can deal damage quicker than the Mech Shaman.

Face Shaman is a more recent version of an aggressive Shaman deck. It swaps Mechs for the strong early-turn Minions that the recent expansions introduced. Added to that are the usual damage dealing spells and a few other Minions you know very well from Face Hunter – Knife Juggler, Leper Gnome, Abusive Sergeant and some Charged Minions. Sir Finley Mrrgglton takes care of the hero power which is utterly useless for such an aggressive deck. Playing against it follows the usual strategy when facing aggressive decks. They always run out of steam.

Midrange Shaman comes in several different shapes. What stays the same are the strongest Shaman cards, but there is variation in how the other cards synergize. You can do this in such a way as to take advantage of Totem synergies – Thunder Bluff Valiant will buff a board full of Totems, or of Battlecry synergies – using Rumbling Elemental and Brann Bronzebeard. Some players dispense with both variants and rely on buffs alone – Bloodlustand Flametongue Totem. When playing against Midrange Shamans, it’s helpful to keep on checking what you are up against – if your opponent brings in a Thunder Bluff Valiantto a board full of Totems, you are in trouble. Equally, it’s a good idea to remember Bloodlustand never leave the opponent with a big board. Shamans tend to have a very hard time catching up if you dictate the tempo, but once they are in the lead, they find it easy to overrun you quickly. It’s always a good idea not to allow them to take the lead.

The last type of deck I am going to mention is Malygos Shaman. As the name reveals, this deck uses a single Legendary, Malygos, as its winning condition. Once again, this is made possible by the many strong damage-dealing spells at Shaman’s disposal. This deck is easy to identify by the few Minions that it carries – it will have Emperor Thaurissan to lower the cost of cards for Lethal once the player collects all of the necessary cards in his hand but very little else. There won’t be any of the usual early-game Shaman Minions. The way that this deck wins is by using Ancestor’s Callto summon Malygosfollowed by a stream of powered up spells. The trick to playing against this deck is not to get to that late game point where the Shaman player has all of the necessary cards. This is done by forcing the Shaman to use up all of his resources in removing your threats. This deck doesn’t tend to have adequate resources to withstand constant pressure.

Mech Shaman has a lot of ways to finish games. Like Crackle. Make that two Crackles… because that’s what a Mech Shaman likes more than a single Crackle.

Shaman is a weak character in the Arena. Unsurprisingly the hero power is the biggest culprit – you really have to look for buffs to make your Totems useful. In Arena, it’s also the higher rarity of some essential cards like Lightning Storm, as well as of all of the Weapons (with the exception of Stormforged Axe), or Thunder Bluff Valiant. Another problem is that in Constructed, the Overload effect can be taken advantage of due to some cards synergizing with the effect. In Arena, it’s harder to make these synergies happen.

Conclusion

I have to admit to still being a little bit disappointed with Shaman despite all of the various ways in which he can be played. It’s not that he doesn’t have great cards. It’s primarily the hero power, as well as Overload. Lava Shocksimply isn’t enough to make Overload painless. This is a shame as I have always wanted to play a slower Shaman deck – there are so many cards that I would like to be playable (The Mistcaller comes to mind). Also, Reincarnate– that card has brought more fun into my Hearthstone games than any other. Sadly, as it is, Shaman primarily lends himself to aggressive play, and that’s not the play style that I enjoy the most in Hearthstone.

Nevertheless, with the way that Hearthstone is going to change in the coming months – with older expansions becoming obsolete in Standard mode, Shaman may become stronger and more capable of competing in a slower meta.

I hope that you have found this guide to be helpful and that you discovered something in it that you can use. I hope that you have as much fun playing Shaman as I have had. See you on the Ladder.

Puzzle Strike is a gem-smashing deckbuilder game featuring the characters of the Fantasy Strike universe. It draws its gameplay inspiration from the video game Puzzle Fighter; which is unsurprising as the lead developer was the lead designer on Puzzle Fighter HD Remix.

Puzzle Strike has recently been given a digital release on Steam and iOS after a successful run as a physical tabletop game. We love both digital card games and tabletop games, and are a little bit crazy over how fun deckbuilding games are — so this title is an irresistible combination for us!

How does the arcade game origin mix with traditional deckbuilding elements? Read on to find out…

Characters come with unique Chip sets in addition to the base Chips giving them completely different playstyles from one another.

GAMEPLAY

Puzzle Strike is a far more interactive and strategic deckbuilding game than any of the traditional deckbuilders such as Dominion or Ascension. Instead of aiming to win the game by having the most victory points, you are trying to fill your opponent’s Gem Pile in a very similar way to that of Puzzle Fighter, overloading them like in Tetris. To do this, you send the Gems in your Gem Pile to your opponent as often as you can (called “crashing”) while trying to build a mini-engine that streamlines your play options each turn.

The gameplay is a lot faster than you would expect from a game of this nature. Players interact with one another on a regular basis through Gem Crashes and Defense Chips that are used to prevent or negate an attack. Many of the other actions you take are over relatively quickly thanks to the very short phases the game uses to keep the arcade-game-style pacing.

Puzzle Strike’s gameplay spreads over several phases that keep everything moving at a decent pace. You begin a turn by having one Gem drop into your Gem Pile, referred to as an Ante. Your one action per turn also refreshes at this stage and can be used to play a Chip from your hand. Chips, drawn from a “bag” (as per the physical version of the game) are essentially the cards of Puzzle Strike. They are the backbone of the gameplay and combo engines that you can create.

The starting Chips for each player are three character-specific Chips, six 1-Gem currency Chips, and a Crash Gem, which sends one of your Gem Pile’s Gems over to your opponent’s Gem Pile. They can defend against this with an appropriate defense card or by discarding their Gem Crash card to negate the attack and reduce their Gem Pile by one. The character Chips differ significantly from one another and alter the way you will approach each battle — often changing your entire strategy to fit that character’s base Chips.

Use currency to buy more Chips to add to your bag, either for combos or to crash more Gems onto your opponent, or both.

Puzzle Strike uses many of the same mechanics seen in other deckbuilding games. You have a central buy area of currency and Chips that stays the same over the course of a match, called the Bank. The top set of Chips is the same no matter the setup, whereas you can customize the range of other Chips available in a game. Puzzle Strike battles can be fought using many different combinations and configurations of the Bank, which makes it extremely versatile.

After your action phase, you enter the buy phase in which you may buy as many Chips from the Bank that you can afford from your currency Gem Chips and any other currency-bestowing Chips you’ve played that turn. A final clean-up phase refreshes your hand of Chips as you wait for your next turn, which will happen very quickly.

There are some excellent additions to this traditional deckbuilding style of play that make Puzzle Strike even more enjoyable. Firstly, a player who has many Gems in their Gem Pile can draw an extra Chip for every three Gems. The additional draw power is a catch-up method that can be used to balance out the game and to give you an opportunity to empty out some of the Gems in your Gem Pile before they reach the 10 required to lose the game at the end of your turn. Another fantastic update to the genre is the banner colors that restrict the types of actions you can play if you don’t have any other generic action-enhancing Chips that turn, so you have to think about your combos carefully.

The colorful nature and characters of Puzzle Strike should be familiar to those that have read our review of Yomi. They are all part of the Fantasy Strike universe that includes many more games. Sadly, there is no animation from the characters when they attack. The only animations come from the playing of Chips and Gems merging or crashing onto the opponent.

Visually, Puzzle Strike is adequate for larger screens, but you can see the image quality degrade slightly if you opt for a full-screen mode in the PC version. I had to turn the in-game music off relatively quickly due to its repetitive nature, though it does suit the aesthetic of the game (being a bit Street Fighter-ish). The user interface is clean and bright. It appears to have been optimized mostly for smaller screens and then stretched to fit the PC — perhaps it should have been done the other way around, but, either way, the game is visually simple and easy to navigate around.

Much of Puzzle Strike’s modes focus on PvP play. Single players are catered to as well, however. There’s a variety of Challenges and A.I. matches to explore too.

MODES AND FEATURES

You are expected to play many of your games in Puzzle Strike as PvP matches through the Quick Match, Custom Game, and Quest options. The single-player modes are few, but well worth investigating, such as the unique Challenges. However, I find nothing beats the thrill of defeating another online opponent through your skill alone.

Puzzle Strike has zero gated content. Your purchase will include all of the game’s Chips and base characters: Grave, Jaina, Midori, Setsuki, Rook, DeGrey, Valerie, Geiger, Lum, and Argagarg. The only purchasable content is the expansion pack that gives you even more characters and Chips to customize your game. The iOS version is a little different in that you start with fewer characters and can purchase the others as in-app purchases. This restriction is due to Puzzle Strike being vastly cheaper on iOS than it is on Steam.

For those of a competitive nature, there is a leaderboard where you can see how you fare against other players. You may view their profile to see which characters they play as, and win with the most, so you can get a rough idea of the stronger characters to play with. Something they’ve implemented which I think is a super cool feature is that you can also check out a player’s last replay. You might learn some extra tips and strategies to take into your next match.

Daily Quests and single-player Challenges give you the chance to earn Jewels, which can be used to unlock “Puzzle Smash”, a high-octane version of the game that bends a few of the rules to bring you an exciting new way to play the game. Think of it as the usually-hidden hard mode from arcade games of old and you’ll get a rough idea of what it entails!

Choosing a character can prove to be difficult with such a wide selection. Here we have the base ten and the additional ten from the expansion pack.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

Much of your strategy in Puzzle Strike will revolve around your chosen character and their base Chips. Some excel at crashing Gems onto the opponent quickly while others may take a defensive approach. Trying to build your engine can be difficult as you are working against the clock of your Gem Pile as well as an opponent at the same time. Having that one Gem drop each turn, as well as having to defend against Gem Crashes regularly, can change your buying habits from “wants” to “needs”!

A key strategy you learn from the outset is to try and combine your Gems to the maximum size of four so that you may crash these onto your opponent without them being able to respond. Do not be afraid to fill your own Gem Pile if you know that you can quickly offload these mega-Gems onto your opponent.

The Bank plays a pivotal role in each game you play. Its diversity can offer many different combos that you may not have seen before. Be sure to read every Chip carefully and in full, so that you understand what they do. Don’t expect many of the Quick Match battles to contain the basic Chips you see in the tutorial. Many of the players like to play with Chips that form aggressive engines that are full of attack Chips.

Trashing is a key mechanic to thin your Bag of Chips to the point where each turn, you have the opportunity to cycle through every Chip you own. Cycling your Chips in this way will be hard to do, but if you can pull it off, it will be mightily satisfying. Avoid Wounds as much as you can as these will clog your deck and make it far less efficient. If you cannot afford to purchase a card in a turn, you must take a wound.

You can use defense Chips or your Crash Gem chip to defend against an incoming Crash. It can sometimes be worthwhile taking the hit when you know you have a tremendous follow-up play next turn!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Puzzle Strike looks and plays much like an arcade version of a deckbuilder. It is clearly designed to be played in short bursts many times over – unlike Dominion, which can take an hour or more. I like the added mechanics that offer an innovative take on the classic deckbuilder genre and deliver far more emphasis on the conflict between the players. It completely forgoes the solitaire feeling you get with many of the traditional deckbuilders by including much more interactive mechanics.

The graphics could have been amped up for the Steam version, and it would have been nice to see some battle animations shoot across the screen between the characters when they drop Gems on their opponent. However, if we take the game to be more of a digital port of a tabletop game, this lack of animations can be excused.

I am still finding new combos and play styles with this one each time I play. Games are shorter than most other deckbuilders as well, leading to an addictive, “just one more match” feeling that I just can’t seem to shake!

If you want a strategic deckbuilding experience that feels like it has taken several shots of coffee beforehand, then you should definitely check out Puzzle Strike.

The Good: Innovative design that improves upon the core gameplay of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ in every way. | Polished interface and stunning art.

The Bad: Needs a few more PvE features to compete against similar games like ‘Hex: Shards of Fate’.

Platforms: PC

Cost: Free to play with in-game purchases.

There are many seasoned trading and collectible card game players out there that have become disillusioned with their favorite games. Among them are some very skilled programmers and designers who have taken it upon themselves to create the games that they enjoy playing and are hopeful that you will enjoy them just as much as they do.

One such group of gamers formed the indie studio Dream Reactor and created Spellweaver, a free-to-play, fantasy-themed, PvP-driven digital CCG that aims to deliver an enjoyable experience while exploring some innovative ideas. Part of the team that created Spellweaver is a former Magic: The Gathering National Champion, so there is substantial TCG/CCG experience behind the project.

With its recent release on Steam, we revisit Spellweaver to see what improvements have been made since our early preview back in February 2015.

Is Spellweaver just another Magic: The Gathering wannabe, or can it stand up on its own? Read on to find out…

Spellweaver may look and play like a Magic clone, but it is far more enjoyable thanks to its unique gameplay mechanics and new features.

GAMEPLAY

The first thing to note is just how beautifully presented Spellweaver is. The user interface and visual design are superb and have been significantly updated to surpass what we saw in our early preview. The card art is fantastic and fits the theme of the game’s different magical realms to which the creatures and spells belong. Perhaps the best visual feature takes place in combat, where the board splits open and inserts a combat row between the two player zones, which then retracts when combat is over. It’s a nice touch to have a 3D animated battleground like this.

If you’re at all familiar with Magic: The Gathering, you will be able to grasp the basic concepts in Spellweaver very quickly. However, there are also new gameplay features that distinguish it from the numerous Magic clones that are out there while also utilizing more modern CCG design elements that are in games such as Hearthstone.

What Spellweaver delivers in gameplay is what Magic could have been if it were released today as a new game, using modern design and mechanics. Most of the core card types and names remain much the same with a few adjustments here and there: creatures are your fighting force, spells replace Sorceries but work in the same way, Instant Spells are just that, and Artifacts have permanent or triggered effects that are designed to give you an advantage.

Shrines replace the traditional single resource system in Magic-style games. Shrines are multi-purpose and offer much more flexibility.

All cards have a faction threshold to meet and a resource cost. The first few turns of a game are all about the setup and how you manage your resources to match the requirements of your cards. Both of your resources are managed through a single card type called a “Shrine” which has replaced the usual single resource card seen in Magic-style games (like “Lands”). This is where the game departs from Magic‘s resource system in a brilliant way.

Shrines are a multipurpose resource card, allowing for maximum flexibility in gameplay. You can gain +1 to the Aspect Level of the Shrine played (permanently adding a resource threshold of the type required), or +1 Mana to your maximum and +1 Card draw, or an additional Hero Skill for your chosen Hero with the more advanced Shrine cards. The +1 Card draw is amazingly useful and ensures that you never go negative for playing a resource to increase your maximum each turn.

Mana itself is colorless, used for playing as many cards as you desire in a turn that you can afford. You will need the necessary Aspect Levels (faction threshold) required too and the more powerful the card, the higher its Level requirement is likely to be. The Shrine cards feel so much more useful than any single resource system you will have used or seen before, and they’re honestly my favorite solution I’ve ever seen to the resource problems of Magic‘s core design.

Spellweaver also implements a method for trying to avoid the usual “resource screw” that we see in Magic-style games. Once per turn, you may discard a card to search the top five cards of your deck for a Shrine card and put it into your hand. When you consider that you can then draw from playing the Shrine card for its Mana options, you’re not down much at all. There is also a mulligan system that lets you refresh your opening hand once.

Your Creatures come with the usual attack power and defense values that are seen in many TCGs/CCGs today. However, Spellweaver builds on this system by adding another layer of strategy with a Speed value ranging from 0 – 4. Creatures may only block or be blocked by other Creatures that carry the same or a faster Speed value. I love the inclusion of this pseudo-initiative value as it offers you a far more strategic level of gameplay than any other Magic-style game out there.

Support Creatures can give you a distinct tactical advantage that your opponent will find it hard to disrupt. Here I am churning out Golems through the use of Energy and overwhelming my opponent.

There’s even more strategic depth with the inclusion of a support row for specific Creatures. Unlike Spells or Artifacts, these Creatures offer a different utility that can provide advantages that your opponent will find hard to disrupt. Creatures in the support row are immune to attacks and may also not defend unless they are flying units or have an ability that lets them do so.

Combat is, of course, a little more complex because of this. Attackers will need to be aware of Creatures the opponent controls that can throw themselves in front of the declared target. Also, as a key departure from Magic, the defender gets to choose the order in which damage is assigned to their cards, giving the defender a distinct advantage in combat. Many Creatures also carry keywords that can change the way they interact with other Creatures on the board when in combat.

The pacing of the gameplay feels just right. It is neither too fast nor too slow, and in PvP matches both players must work with both match and turn timers so that games don’t drag on unnecessarily.

There is plenty to do in Spellweaver, with much of it aimed at PvP play. Take part in tournaments, casual, and ranked play to increase your fame. A.I. modes reward you with Gold and booster packs to keep you on a level playing field with those that pay to play.

MODES AND FEATURES

Much of Spellweaver‘s gameplay has a heavy emphasis on PvP with friendly and ranked matches. You may also take on the A.I. in practice matches that allow you to adjust the difficulty of the A.I. opponent. The map contains many quests and PvE events that result in rewards of Gold (in-game soft currency), booster packs, and fame. Aspect areas can be unlocked when you acquire that Aspect’s starter deck and this will open up many more events and quests for you to take part in.

The free-to-play model in Spellweaver is relatively fair for those who are new to the game. As a new player, you stand a decent chance of being able to defeat a player who may have injected a little money into the game. You can build your card collection through completing special and daily quests and by increasing your player level as this comes with its own rewards.

As your collection grows, you might want to take advantage of the crafting feature. You can turn unwanted cards into Shrine cards and then use these to craft the cards you do want, as Shrine cards themselves are the crafting currency. You can access this feature via the Collection tab on the main screen that also houses the game’s main interactive features.

You get what you would expect to see in the Marketplace. You have the usual offerings of booster packs, special offers, and premium currency. The booster packs are respectfully priced when you compare them to the pricing of the in-game currency, and some can be purchased using Gold that is earned at an adequate pace.

‘Trials’ is another excellent way of building up your collection but these do cost a little Gold. ‘Trials’ is a drafting mode against the A.I. where you take part in successive battles until you lose three times, akin to Hearthstone‘s Arena. Your final prize is dependent on the number of wins you manage to accrue before taking your third and final loss. Anyone that loves drafting will fall in love with Trials the moment they begin playing — I definitely did!

Choose a Hero and then build your deck. You can enhance their powers through the use of special Shrine cards, which offer a more flexible approach to the Hero powers mechanic seen in many modern TCGs/CCGs.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

All of the colors of Magic are present in Spellweaver with the addition of one further color. These are called Aspects, and they are Order (White), Wisdom (Blue), Rage (Red), Nature (Green), with Dominion (Purple) and Corruption (Black) serving as a more detailed breakdown of the Black playstyle of Magic-style games.

Order contains plenty of small Creatures that will pick away at your opponent’s life points while the Spells pacify their cards. Wisdom is a control and card draw playstyle that has plenty of tempo and makes exceptional use of the Energy mechanic (a resource of counters that accrue on certain cards and can be spent on effects). Rage will fling Goblin after Goblin at you while also burning through your life points. Nature has a few big Creatures but offsets this with a very tribalistic feel with speedy Elves that have incredible synergy with one another.

The Dominion Aspect has half of the Black playstyle in poison and decay effects that can also be used on its own Creatures to imbue them with more power. Corruption is the side of the undead that makes use of graveyard play in addition to hand manipulation. All of these Aspects have their strengths and weaknesses that you will need to find to exploit them for your gain in battle.

Creatures and Spells aren’t the only things at your disposal in a game of Spellweaver. Your Hero is an avatar that comes with powers you can trigger in much the same way as playing a card. It will cost you some Mana, and you will also need the required Aspect Level to be able to activate the power. Some powers are better than others, but all are thematic to the Hero’s Aspect color.

Each Hero starts with one base power and can gain access to more powers by using a special Shrine card. Accessing new powers will make your Hero far more useful throughout the course of a match and makes them feel much more fleshed out than just an avatar with life points.

Finally, deckbuilding can be accessed from the Deck tab. It functions in much the same way as Hearthstone’s deckbuilder. First you choose a Hero and can then proceed to fill your deck with the cards that you want to use. The only restriction is that you cannot include more than four copies of a card. You may want to experiment with multi-Aspect decks and to do so you will need to include Shrines for both Aspects in your deck. You’ll want to accommodate a Mana curve when building your deck in addition to ensuring you can meet the Aspect Level requirements of your cards, too.

Spellweaver is a much more enjoyable experience than many of its competitors. The flexible gameplay keeps you in control of your resources and how you use them. Make them count and you too could mount an attack like this!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Spellweaver’s developers have put together one of the finest digital card games I have played. All of the small bugs and roughness have been ironed out since my early preview, and in its current state, Spellweaver is a true contender for the Magic crown in the digital space.

The visual presentation is astounding with its excellent user interface and visually appealing card art. Mechanically the game is very solid, and I’ve experienced no glitches or bugs during gameplay. There were none of the previous crashes that I had experience in the closed beta. Because of this, I feel assured that the development team actions every bit of feedback they receive to improve the game and to ensure that the user experience is nothing short of phenomenal.

The current Aspects and their cards felt well designed and balanced, with none of them having too much of an advantage over all other Aspects. Getting into the game as a new player seems far fairer than many other free-to-play games on the market because of the many ways in which you can earn cards and the overall balance of the game’s economy. The fair pricing of packs and premium currency should also appeal to those that don’t mind spending a little bit of cash for the thrill of opening booster packs!

You have to remember that Spellweaver has been designed and developed by TCG/CCG players like us. They have created a game based on our opinions and feedback as to how a great card game should look and play. I hope you have seen enough to entice you back into the fray and to give Spellweaver the well-deserved chance it has earned.

Spellweaver has taken all of the essentials needed for a great digital card game and cranked them up to eleven. The gameplay is so much more intuitive and refreshing than any other Magic-style game on offer. Don’t miss out on this new gem in the digital card game genre.

The Bad: No story to follow. | Doesn’t feel different enough from its predecessor.

Platforms: iOS, Android

Cost: Free to play with in-app purchases.

If you’re an avid reader of this site, you will remember our review for Prime World: Defenders from Nival Studios back in August last year. Nival is back with a follow-up to this award-winning Tower Defense Game of the Year with Defenders 2: Tower Defense CCG. Building on the success of its predecessor, the game brings more monsters, more spells, and more towers to collect than ever before.

There are plenty of risks involved when a sequel tries to build on the success of its predecessor. One such problem is attempting to make the game different enough from the original without breaking any of the core elements that made it a success in the first place. There is also the risk that not enough changes have occurred to entice your audience to make the leap to your new game.

How different is Defenders 2 from its predecessor? Read on to find out…

The levels are gorgeous to look at and you can zoom in on the action with ease.

GAMEPLAY

The core gameplay of Defenders 2 remains largely unchanged from the original Prime World: Defenders. You must defend your “Prime” resources from waves of monsters using towers in the typical Tower Defense manner. On each level, you’ll start with a set amount of Prime, the primary resource, and then use this to build towers that will fire at the monsters when they come into range of them.

There are 40 different towers within the game that you can collect in card format. These, along with the 20 different spells, are your nuclear arsenal against the relentless assault of the monsters in the world of Prime. The objective of the monsters changes a little from round to round, as sometimes the monsters are just trying to enter a base that reduces your health and at other times they are attempting to get their hands on your stash of Prime. They can also come from more than one path, and this makes the levels feel a little less repetitive.

The level design is more or less the same as in the first game. There are specific places in the level where you can place your towers, but this game goes further with a fog of war effect on some levels that reduces your vision, and you may only place towers within sight of other towers. This restriction puts a lot more emphasis on the strategic placement of your towers and not just overwhelming the enemy at the start of the level with multiple high-powered towers.

Weather effects have also been added to the game, such as tornadoes and meteor storms that can destroy your defenses. This may seem like a random addition thrown in to differentiate the game from its predecessor, and it essentially is. It certainly adds more pressure to the game, but this could have been achieved just as easily with more powerful monsters or a restriction on your Prime resources.

Tower placement is the key to succeeding and is even more important when you tackle the hard version of the same level – if you dare!

To build a tower, you spend Prime. As you level up throughout the game you will have access to more Prime at the start of the round. This can make proceedings feel rather relaxed as you will also earn tower cards at a reasonable enough pace to upgrade your towers’ firepower to cope with the increasingly difficult levels. At no point in the game did I struggle with a level, and if I made a mistake, I could easily restart it to try a different approach. There are no drawbacks to this as Defenders 2 doesn’t use an energy system to limit your playtime (thankfully!).

There are more ways to upgrade your towers than ever before. In Defenders 2, you have to not only upgrade their firepower, but also the total number you can deploy. You can do this by merging two of the same card which also gives them a little kick concerning overall power, too. Most of the firepower improvements come from having the tower card in your line-up so that it may earn experience at the end of a round. The game keeps their power level in check by limiting them to your player level as well.

Runes add a new way to enhance your towers and spells. There are a few types that can only fit into particular slots. These are unlocked once you’ve made some decent headway in the game’s campaign. Speaking of the campaign, Defenders 2 lacks any sense of a story mode, and there appears to be no purpose to your battles beyond leveling up and just beating off waves of monsters with your towers! This is forgivable however when the gameplay is as solid as this.

The graphics seem to have received minimal updates, if any. Looking back at the screenshots from Prime World: Defenders, we can see that the monsters and towers look much the same. The only real changes have come from the user interface which appears much cleaner and more refined than before. The sound effects are very similar too, with the tower sound effects remaining unchanged. There are additions to the newer tower types and weather effects that add to the overall aesthetic of Defenders 2.

Your tower collection is readily accessed and lists all of your current towers and spells. There are even tower shards that can be combined into a complete tower card when you have enough pieces.

MODES AND FEATURES

There is only one play mode inDefenders 2, but it does incorporate a PvP element that is used to break the monotony of playing similar looking levels over and over.

The world map is shrouded in a fog that can be uncovered by using Silver (the soft in-game currency) to explore that area. Certain areas can only be explored once you have reached a prerequisite level. This continues throughout the game so that the gameplay is paced according to your power level.

This restriction ensures that no level is too difficult for you to defeat. You can, however, attempt the same level of a harder mode once you’ve defeated it at least once. The hard mode grants better rewards for its increased difficulty level and will test your strategic placements much more than the original difficulty level.

There is a minor PvP element included in Defenders 2 that feels very gimmicky. There are spots on the map that show a mine-type icon and a player’s name above it. If you battle with them, you will fight a level like most others except that when you win, you are essentially enslaving the player to work in that mine for the resources it provides. Most of the time it is Silver that is produced and can be collected every now and again. This goes a long way to providing you with the resources needed to purchase many of the tower or spell card booster packs.

There are many ways to upgrade your tower’s power and deployment level. Runes add even more ways to empower your arsenal, adding an element of customization that I really enjoy in this game.

Towers are upgraded through the use of duplicate tower cards or special consumable cards that can do one of two things: grant experience points or provide an additional deployment level. Most towers come with a maximum number of deployments allowed and so you’ll need to pay attention to your limitations on deployment when you have that tower in your line-up.

Runes have added another way to increase the power of your spells and towers. These are found by defeating specific levels that only offer runes as a reward, as most other levels grant Silver or tower cards. Other resources are scattered throughout the world of Prime which offer even more ways to upgrade and enhance your towers. These new enhancements may feel like a great inclusion, but the rate at which you can acquire these is actually relatively slow and thus makes very little impact on the overall gameplay.

In-game achievements, missions, and goals give you something to strive for beyond just endless hours of a repetitive process. They will award Stars (the premium in-game currency) that are claimed once you’ve met the achievement objective. You will hit a number of these through regular play, but some you will have to hunt by meeting set criteria. I like the inclusion of features like this, as being rewarded for playing is something that keeps me wanting to play so I am less likely to put the game down.

Chase those achievements and you’ll be well rewarded with some premium currency, called Stars.

DECKBUILDING AND STRATEGY

Defenders 2 offers little in the way of a deck editing feature. You simply swap towers and spells in and out of your line-up as per the level you’re about to face. You will be doing this quite often, so the level preview comes in handy when it comes to assigning the correct towers for that level. However, you can almost keep the same line-up throughout the early part of the game without any penalties.

Spells add a great way to clear difficult to manage monster waves, such as those that are fast-moving or greater in number. I found little use for most of the spells until I encountered specific enemy types that my towers often found too hard to cope with alone. Most levels can be completed without having to rely on a single spell, and if you can manage this feat, you will earn a nice little achievement.

The positioning of your towers is everything. You may be able to clear a level with poor positioning, but you certainly won’t reap the maximum in rewards for losing some life or Prime. Whatever Prime or life you have left at the end of the battle will then be converted to Silver, which you need for continued adventure and booster packs.

I would also recommend that you upgrade the number of towers you can deploy as much as you can. This is especially important for your more powerful towers for the later parts of the game. Being able only to deploy one of a type of a tower will adversely change your overall effectiveness against the monster waves you’ll be facing. Lastly, upgrades are your friends. Perform them at every opportunity!

Despite the inclusion of new features, Defenders 2 doesn’t feel all that different from its predecessor.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Taking everything into account, you may get the impression that there really isn’t enough in the way of changes to entice you to pick up Defenders 2 over its predecessor. The lack of a story – when one was present in Prime World: Defenders – gives you even less of a connection to the game’s world.

There are some additions to the game that have almost no bearing on the overall gameplay. The resources you can collect to empower your towers are slow to acquire as are the number of rune levels available at any one time. The weather effects feel gimmicky and an almost desperate attempt to make Defenders 2 more challenging.

The fact remains that the game is actually fairly easy from the start, with the only real challenge coming from the hard versions of a level once it has been completed on its normal difficulty. The only reason to embark on the more difficult mission is for the greater reward it offers, but it isn’t necessary to stay at the maximum power level for your player level.

Defenders 2 is slightly disappointing only in the sense that the first game was so good, I had (perhaps impossibly) high expectations for a sequel. I was hoping for so much more when you consider just how good Prime World: Defenders is.

If I were to recommend one over the other, I would suggest you visit Prime World: Defendersfirst. If you enjoy it, then you should also check out Defenders 2 for the simple reason of extending that experience some more. The new features add a minimal amount of weight to the game, but not enough that it makes an enormous difference between the two games.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/review/defenders-2-tower-defense-ccg/feed/2Paladins: Champions of the Realm – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/paladins-champions-of-the-realm-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/paladins-champions-of-the-realm-early-preview/#respondMon, 15 Feb 2016 18:37:16 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=12969It appears that game development is all about finding new ways to blend different genres these days. We have seen... Read More »

]]>It appears that game development is all about finding new ways to blend different genres these days. We have seen many card games incorporate genre-specific mechanics from MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas), RPGs, and even Tower Defense games. The opposite is just as true, with these genres borrowing the deep strategic gameplay offered by using elements of games like Hearthstone and other popular casual card battlers.

Paladins: Champions of the Realm falls into the latter camp. It is an FPS (First Person Shooter) that uses lane styled maps of MOBAs and then injects a couple of card game mechanics to keep things interesting! Paladins: Champions of the Realm is currently in a Closed Beta phase and we got our hands on a couple of beta keys to see how this FPS/MOBA with cards from Hi-Rez Studios is shaping up!

So how does an FPS/MOBA with card mechanics compete against other FPS and MOBA giants? Read on to find out…

This is no card game, exactly… but there are cards involved. Sort of.

Gameplay

Hi-Rez Studios are not the first developers to cross over First Person Shooters and MOBAs. In fact, Blizzard Entertainment was the first with its Overwatch game that has received much critical acclaim during its Closed Beta phase. Paladins: Champions of the Realm is quite different from Overwatch – despite appearing to be its direct competitor.

Those familiar with FPS mechanics will notice how the main objective is similar to King of the Hill. This is where you need to hold one specific location on the map for as long as you can to score points. This has been adapted into Paladins‘ gameplay, but instead of just scoring points, you will eventually summon a siege engine that will fire at your enemy’s gates. This takes the place of creeps/minions in other MOBAs.

This is where the MOBA flavor comes from. Gates protect Vaults, which are your ultimate objective. Destroy the enemy’s Vault and your team will secure the victory. Nothing is quite as simple as that, though — you can only shoot at the gates if you have a siege engine with you. If you don’t, the enemy towers will shoot at you for massive damage. This prevents the backdoor rush seen in some MOBAs.

Fights over the siege engine capture points are extremely tense and fast-paced.

All the while you and your team are trying to hold that one point to summon your siege engine the enemy team is trying to do the same. This culminates in epic team fights that can never be avoided and the winning team will usually be able to hold the point long enough to summon their siege engine. You will then need to escort the engine while taking fire from your opponents who usually continue to try and take you down, along with your siege engine!

There are other modes besides this one that utilize either the siege engine aspect of the game or the King of the Hill mechanic where all you need to do is hold the capture point for points alone. The siege-engine-only mode is one that I particularly enjoy.

Each team has one objective, depending on which side they’re on: either push the engine along to blow up the vault or stop the opposing team from doing so. The action is fast and frantic in this mode with Champions falling very quickly as you push the engine through choke points that guarantee maximum action.

The character design is one of the most enjoyable things about the game, with a cast of very colorful and quirky characters to select from.

Gameplay Continued…

Paladins: Champions of the Realm has very few Champions at this stage in its development. There are currently ten to choose from, but each one is completely different in terms of play style, strengths, and weaknesses.

A little disclaimer before we talk about the card aspect of the game: I have been part of the Beta for a short while, and in that time, the card system was massively overhauled. At first, you would choose cards as you leveled up and these would have their maximum effects. Now, you choose five cards at the beginning of the match and slowly level them up point-by-point as you play.

The chosen cards will have an immediate effect on your Champion’s base attack and health, in addition to the other effects the card bestows. Each card starts at level zero and can be increased to a maximum of four. As you level up in-game, you will be able to choose which cards to level. This is much more of a MOBA-style approach where the norm is to level up your skills individually.

Cards carry additional benefits and improvements for your Champions in addition to the base stat increases. These effects are devised to give you an edge in battle or to enhance a specific play style you wish to adopt for that Champion. Some may give you increased movement speed or affect health regeneration or stealth, while others will grant you the ability to slow or stun opponents. There are some effects that depend on percentages and RNG, so be aware of that also.

The card loadout at the start of the game is important, but there does seem to be some dominant optimal builds for each character right now.

Your card collection will grow as you play the game. As it grows, you will find making your card choices at the beginning of the match much more difficult, but with the smaller card pool, this is less of an issue right now. In the old method, you could change up your strategy based upon the cards the game would give you to choose between.

Now you are locked into the five cards at the start and the best ones to level are usually those of a higher rarity. If you’re a damage dealer you’ll want to focus on increasing your damage output. Tanks will want to focus on health increases or the ability to reduce the damage taken. The new card mechanic makes the game feel much more linear than it was before.

The action is fast-paced with very little breathing room between objective spawns. You will have to be mobile at all times, and this is helped by the inclusion of a horse mount that increases your movement speed and comes with the added benefit of increasing your health regeneration as you ride.

Team composition plays a huge part in the overall strategy of the game. As the Champions and maps roster fill out, this will become even more apparent. Choosing the right skill cards at the beginning and during a match will also play a huge part in whether you win or lose.

Graphically, the game is crisp and bright. The Champion models are well designed and unique enough to tell them apart during a fierce firefight. The maps are a little on the plain side, but this should be great news for those with less than top-spec PCs. Everything has a cell-shaded, cartoon-like quality to it.

There’s not much you can do with cards right now other than collect and craft them, but they are needed if you want more talent

Features

As Paladins: Champions of the Realm is in Closed Beta it is hard to determine what the full feature set will be when the game gets its final release. For now, we have an FPS that uses MOBA and card game mechanics to make it feel completely different from many of the FPS games out there. It certainly feels very different from the game it will be going head-to-head against, Overwatch.

The biggest and most unique feature of this game is its card system. Choosing a lineup of cards that are designed to help you throughout the match is relatively new. The way you level these is not. It is very similar to how leveling up skills in a MOBA functions, with you being given a choice as to which skills to level when your Champion levels up.

Cards are collected in the usual fashion – boosters. Well, in this instance, your booster is a chest and these come in two varieties. The first is the common Champion Chest which contains one card and can be earned fairly easily. The Radiant Chest is the second of the chests and contains five cards, so it’s able to add cards to your collection much more efficiently. You can even buy a Radiant Chest using one of the two in-game currencies. One is a premium currency while the other can be earned by taking part in casual and ranked matches.

The only competitive mode, Challenge Match currently requires a full team of five to enter matchmaking, so you’ll probably be spending most of your time in the Casual mode.

Paladins features just four main play modes: Practice, Co-Op, Casual, and Ranked. Practice should be your first stop upon downloading the game. Here you can play against the A.I. in the Capture and Siege mode we discussed earlier. Co-Op is much the same, but you can take a party of players into this mode, which is once again against the A.I.

Casual and Ranked matches are where you play against other players from around the world. Their skills are much more proficient than any A.I. — so if you’re new, expect no mercy! After queueing for a short while, you are thrust into a screen where you can vote for the match type.

This gives you the map and game type information to work with and the choices will usually be Capture Only, Outpost, Capture and Siege, and Survival. Each player then votes on which mode they want to play and you won’t know which one has won out until all votes have been cast. If one player doesn’t vote, the game is dropped and you’ll have to re-queue.

This is a great design feature that reduces the number of times you’ll play with someone who has gone AFK (away from keyboard). However, there is one major flaw at this time that does need to be addressed. If one or more players drop from your team at any point in the game, you will be left with fewer players than the opposing team. There are no bots to take over the role of the lost teammates and you’ll have to hope they reconnect, or that the game ends quickly!

I’m sure that more features await us as the game develops. Players are encouraged to share their ideas with the development team via their forums. With the game’s mix of genres, there is scope for game modes that would not normally make sense in their native genre. As long as they’re as action packed as the current modes are, we’ll be in for a real treat!

The cards are fun, but I feel they’re a bit underused and sidelined. They’re not the main focus of the game, that’s for sure.

First Impressions

Paladins: Champions of the Realm has the option to buy into the Beta immediately for $19.99 through the purchase of the Founder’s Pack. The Founder’s Pack also comes with an exclusive mount and plenty of Radiant Chests to begin your card collection. This also gives Hi-Rez Studios the funds they need to keep development going at a speedy pace. The updates stream is currently very quick, with the team addressing balance issues on a frequent basis.

This is one of the most action-packed FPS or MOBA games I have played for quite some time. The downtime when dead and in between objective spawns is short, and the MOBA-style gameplay helps to bring about huge team fights frequently. In other FPS games you usually only ever worry about yourself, but in this game you are encouraged to work as a team to secure objectives through the acquisition of points which can be seen on the scoreboard. This shows you just how much of a team player you and others in your team have been.

The scoreboard does give you information on your individual performance but is more of an indicator as to how much damage you have done and how much kill participation you’ve been involved in. Everything else about the game is entirely team-focused and it feels very refreshing to play an FPS with that mentality.

Paladins is an enjoyable experience no matter which mode you play. Win or lose, you will have a blast getting to know your Champions and thinking strategically. But don’t be fooled — there’s no card game here. The unique card mechanics simply offer you something different than the normal FPS/MOBA experience and give you the ability to change your strategy throughout the match. If you’re winning, then you’ll drop the defensive picks in favor of something more offensive!

The development of the game is still in its early days. More Champions will be added as the development continues, and this also means more cards for us to customize our Champions with. I’m hoping for the inclusion of more modes that are just as fun as the current offerings, with plenty more maps to boot. The current line-up will get very repetitive after a few hours of frantic gameplay!

I can see Paladins doing exceedingly well due to the addictive qualities it possesses from FPSs and MOBAs. It has incorporated all of its disparate mechanics seamlessly, with none of them feeling out of place or thrust upon you. I’ll definitely be playing this one regularly alongside all of the other MOBAs that I love to play.

The Good: Amazing artwork. | A deep and rewarding strategic card game system.

The Bad: First few games drag on a little. | Card template takes up too much room.

Platforms: Physical Tabletop.

Cost: $24.99 for physical game on developer’s website.

Battle For Sularia is a turn-based card game for two or more players. It is set within the story of Sularia, depicting how the megacorps of that world continue to battle for the remnants of a once-proud jewel of a planet. The game was Kickstarted back in July 2015 after raising just under $19,000 for a $15,000 campaign. It shipped in late January and is now available for general purchase via the creator’s web store.

In the far future, corporations will one day have more power and influence than governments, fighting it out for supremacy over resources and people, with the victors obtaining world domination and a power we could only ever dream of.

Battle For Sularia takes us beyond the megacities created by the megacorps and instead shows us the ramifications of such battles — how the fight for ultimate profit and gain fractures a planet so badly that it becomes a shadow of its former glory, limping in the solar system as a barren and gray planet almost incapable of sustaining life.

Is there a market for Battle For Sularia outside of Kickstarter? Read on to find out…

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Battle for Sularia was finally shipped in January of 2016. It has many new design concepts that set it apart from any other card gaming system.

GAMEPLAY

One of the core reasons I personally backed Battle For Sularia is because of the theme and the artwork. I’m a huge sucker for sci-fi and the many ways designers invent the future and other worlds in this genre. There are no limits as to where your mind can take you when you create new worlds. Battle For Sularia was created with a rich backstory that sounds like it could be a mirror of our Earth in a few hundred years.

The gameplay also grabbed my interest when I read through the Kickstarter campaign. It borrows a few mechanics and ideas from other games, yet lays them out in a fashion that is all its own. The game feels unique in this respect and playing it feels like nothing else I’ve played before.

The box comes with the first two factions from the story of Sularia: Jotune and Synthien. The Jotune are a more militia-style that excels in flight and teamwork. The Synthien are a more control-based deck that utilizes the shadows to hide their strength and true numbers. Both factions come with 90 cards each in the box, but a deck will contain 60 cards total. This gives room for further deckbuilding outside of the starter decks that the rule book suggests you use for your first few times playing the game.

After a number of turns, each player’s set-up will look roughly the same. It always seems daunting to make the first attack as there is so much at stake if you lose!

There are a number of zones on the board designated for specific card types. Each zone plays a specific role in your overall strategy and gameplay, with every card being meaningful to the overall outcome of the game. There are two primary resources you’ll need to manage in each of your turns. Influence is used to play Sites, which are like locations, and Sularium, which is used to pay for Combatants (your units). A third resource cost, Threshold, is used through your Influence and is a cost that must be met when playing Tactics and Condition cards.

This is a turn-based game, with players taking their own turns going through the game’s phases to perform specific actions. Your first objective is to obtain enough Influence to begin playing Sites. To gain Influence you play one card from your hand face-down in the Influence zone each turn. You may use any card to fulfill this role, but the most beneficial ones to use are the Tactics and Condition cards as you can still trigger them from the Influence zone at a later time. I love this “resource card becomes a trap card” mechanic — it’s one of my favorite things about the game.

Your Sites provide most of your Sularium generation and also act as barriers between your enemy and a direct attack against you. Each turn you can play as many Sites and Combatants as your resources allow. However, you have to be careful with the amount of Influence you spend in a turn as it isn’t replenished until your following turn. The reason for this is that in order to play your Tactics and Condition cards you will also be using your Influence pool.

Using your face-down Tactic cards will use your Influence pool, reducing the resources available for the opponent’s turn. Balancing your resources and activating cards makes this game far more strategic than it first appears.

The game takes a while to build up. It takes some time to build up your rows of Sites and to be able to have enough Combatants to really start putting the hurt on your opponent. The pacing can often feel slow and the thinking times about moves can drag on due to the amount of number crunching you’ll have to do each turn to remember just how much of each resource you have at any given time (if you’re not using trackers of some kind). It’s a very “mathy” game, so be aware of that if you struggle with lots of numbers.

I touched on the artwork earlier and it is truly something to behold, though much of that is wasted due to the small space given to the actual art. The template takes up far too much room, as does much of the effect and flavor text. Even vanilla cards with no effect and only flavor text have the same template as those with longer effects.

Sure, the uniformity is great, but I would have loved to see more of the fantastic artwork on the cards. I might be spoiled by games like Cardfight!! Vanguard which showcases the art in full, as now I find myself squinting at these tiny art boxes in games like this one (and Magic: The Gathering ) and wish they’d really open up the templates more to show off the amazing art.

When you build a custom deck from the 90 cards that are available in the box, you will need to pay attention to the construction points value on each card. You cannot go above 90 points when building your deck of at least 60 cards.

EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE…

Battle For Sularia comes with just two factions in the standard retail box. These factions tell a small part of Sularia’s story and it is through the decks that you enact this story. The basic 60-card decks will get you familiarized with the game’s rules and gameplay fairly quickly. The remaining 30 cards from each faction can then be used for deckbuilding purposes once you’re comfortable with the gameplay.

There are only two rules you must obey when deckbuilding. Your deck must contain no less than 60 cards and you cannot exceed more than 90 points in construction value when building the deck. Construction points are printed on each card between the attack and defense values. Most cards cost one or two points, but there are a few stronger cards that cost more.

There are other rules to obey when playing the game that can be easily missed or forgotten about when in the midst of gameplay. One of these is the Type attribute that restricts the number of how many of a single card you can have in play at any one time. If a card has Type 4, for example, it means that you can have up to four copies of that card in play. Type 1 cards are powerful and having the limitation of one in play makes them feel more unique than anything else you’ll have in play at that time.

Most of your strategies will form as you play. It is hard to begin an early assault as you’ll want to save your Combatants for defense against your opponent’s cards. Using your face-down Tactics and Condition cards will reduce the amount of Influence you have to build more Sites. You should only use these in extreme circumstances or when they can net you a significant advantage. Balancing out all of your resources will be tough at first, but you’ll eventually get used to it.

To use effects and attack, you need to Activate and Engage, respectively. This angles the card at its appropriate angle and allows you to see what cards are engaged or have been activated. These refresh at the start of each of your turns.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Battle For Sularia was an impressive Kickstarter campaign that drew a fair amount of attention. The amount of strategic depth on offer has many layers that will have you engrossed in the gameplay many plays after your first. The basic rule book gives you all you need to get going straight away, though you may find yourself referencing the full rules sooner or later when complex card interactions occur.

The game is touted as a quick game that usually only lasts about 20 minutes. I found this to only be true once you’d played a few times. Initial games will take a lot longer than this as you learn about the different card combinations and strategic moves that your factions can perform. The amount of thinking time dedicated to these strategies takes away some of the player interaction this game boasts about. However, once you’re more accustomed to the game you should be playing at a pace that feels much more interactive.

The delightful artwork is squandered by the overly-spacious card template. I do wish more love was given to the artwork as I have to squint to be able to make out the finer details of a piece. They are easily recognizable when on the board and each piece looks well separated. You’ll know which Combatant and Site is which from just a quick glance over your board, which showcases just how diverse the artwork is.

The artwork is some of the finest seen in a card game in this genre. Sadly, the card template takes up much of the room and lessens the impact the artwork could have had at selling more units of the game.

The overall presentation is superb and if you’re into the story behind the game then I suggest you check that out on their website. There is plenty to read and a lot more beautiful artwork pieces to discover. If you get into the game you may want to think about picking up one of the glorious playmats that really does some of the artwork more justice than the cards could ever hope to do.

There are plans to expand the game beyond the starting factions and to grow the story of Sularia. More factions mean more decks and the possibility of even more game modes that would easily lengthen the replay value of the game. There is so much untapped potential with Battle For Sularia and if it can keep up the momentum from the successful Kickstarter campaign, there is no reason why this cannot be as successful as other much-loved expandable card games!

]]>2015’s most anticipated announcement was that Bushiroad were finally digitizing their flagship TCG, Cardfight!! Vanguard under the name Cardfight!! Online. Much to everyone’s excitement, the Closed Beta began this week and we were lucky enough to be given access. We know the pain of not being able to get into these Closed Betas, so if you’re a diehard Vanguard fan, we want to provide you with as much detailed information as possible as to what modes and features are currently available in the game.

If you’ve never heard of Cardfight!! Vanguard before, it’s an anime/manga-themed trading card game originally from Japan, and it’s especially notable in that it plays quite unlike most other Western card games that you might be familiar with. It’s this combination of unique mechanics and catchy art that helped the game defy all the trends working against new TCGs entering the saturated market to become one of the most popular new card games of recent years.

It’s everything a Vanguard fan could have hoped for, with a caveat: the card pool is rather small right now, and everything in the game is currently from Generation Stride and later sets.

Gameplay

If you’re familiar with the TCG and its gameplay, skip to the next section. Otherwise, here is your drive-by explanation of Cardfight!! Vanguard. Players use a personally constructed deck in a head-to-head battle to be the first one to deal six cards of damage (drawn from the player’s deck when they take damage and placed into the damage zone). You’ll do this by attacking with units, which form the entirety of your deck.

There are no spells, equipment, or action cards: every single card is a unit, with a range of activated, automatic, and triggered abilities. Units have grades from 0 up to 4, and you can only play higher-grade units once you’ve progressively “ridden” your main unit, the Vanguard, up to a higher grade each turn. Players take turns attacking with their Vanguard and Rearguard units, boosting with behind units or throwing down cards from their hands as shields to bolster the numbers.

If a Vanguard’s attacks (or is hit), they get to perform a Drive Check which allows them to draw and reveal cards from the top of their deck, and if a card has a Trigger, it is activated. There are four Triggers: Draw (draw a card immediately), Stand (refresh an exhausted Rearguard unit so it can attack again), Heal (remove a damage card if you’re equal to or more damaged than your opponent), and Critical (add 1 extra damage that a unit can deal to the Vanguard if their attack hits this turn). Each trigger also provides an immediate 5,000 attack point bonus that can be added to any unit for the turn.

Triggers provide some of the most nail-biting and fiero-inducing moments in all of TCG/CCG gaming history.

Trigger cards are a huge part of what makes this game so exciting because there are a limited number of them in your deck and they provide useful and sometimes outcome-changing effects. It’s also why a lot of TCG/CCG players from other games feel that Vanguard is too luck-based, and while luck does play into this game more so than in others, mastering Vanguard requires an incredible amount of familiarity with the game, the attack numbers, deck ratios and watching what cards are entering your opponent’s hand from their Drive Checks.

There are other unique effects that can be activated using a variety of costs such as flipping damage cards face down, moving cards in and out of your Vanguard’s Soul (the cards underneath it) or having used grade 4 Stride units in previous turns. The subtleties of the game and its diverse resource systems are what make it so different from Western-designed games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone. It provides an entirely different style of playing a TCG/CCG in a way that is completely refreshing and innovative, making it one of my favourite TCGs/CCGs of all time.

It helps that the game’s glorious art is represented in high-quality images for your viewing pleasure.

Gameplay Continued…

Let’s now discuss the intricacies of Cardfight!! Onlineas a digital game. Unfortunately, when physical TCGs/CCGs of this kind are ported into the digital space, the rules system slows things down a lot. There are a lot of phases and steps to go through each turn, with appropriate response time for the opponent (although there is less interactivity on an opponent’s turn outside of combat than in other games). This makes the game initially feel a bit slow and clunky, however, once you get the hang of it you realise they’ve done the best job they could possibly do implementing the rules system faithfully.

All abilities and effects are scripted perfectly so far, with no hitches in resolving them. The game gives you an appropriate amount of time in between actions, although you do start to feel rushed by the ticking timer with its urgent sound effects and lights flashing at you. This may stress out new players, but for experienced players it keeps everything flowing as fast as possible and you’ll come to appreciate it.

The game is visually stunning, with a lot of effects and polish added. The decks are not stacked perfectly, with your cards shifting off to the side a bit as sometimes happens with real cards. When sleeved, cards actually look and feel like they’re in plastic sleeves, as even the front-facing image will show the plastic sleeve edge effect around it. As well as the drawing and shuffling sound effects, it’s very realistic. All of these small details add to the sense of “physicality” that the game has.

As far as a digital version of Vanguard, this is shaping up to be exactly what you’d hope for. It’s beautiful, it’s smooth (even for a Closed Beta), and it has the right amount of digital polish to make it feel a bit more like a video game while still retaining its traditional physical TCG/CCG essence. It’s about as close as you can get to a perfect physical-to-digital translation of a card game.

If you scroll the mouse wheel, you can get a closer view at your playmat or your opponent’s.

Features

You have a player profile which provides some interesting statistics about your number of wins and so on. There are also some cosmetic touches such as displaying your avatar as large art as well as what sleeve and deck you’re currently using. There are also tutorials which will walk you through the rules in a scripted battle, step-by-step, and it is a very fast and efficient way to get a new player up to speed with the game. Daily quests provide limited amounts of gold and these have various goals such as dealing 10 damage to opponents for the day or winning a certain amount of matches.

The bulk of the game, however, is in the Clan Fight section. Here is where you’ll select your deck and jump right in to matchmaking. There’s Free Fight, which is an unranked mode and allows you to choose from either Clan Fight (single-clan decks only) or Extreme Fight (allows a broader mixture of clans under certain rules). Player Search, which does exactly that, allows you to add players to your friends list and challenge them (you can challenge other players directly, although only 3 times per day for some reason).

Here are your gameplay options, listed under the button somewhat confusingly called “Card Fight” at the bottom of the screen.

There’s also Ranked mode which is where the bulk of competitive gameplay is going to happen. The ranking system plays very much like Hearthstone‘s, starting you on rank 25 and slowly moving towards rank 1 by earning “stars”. Getting consistent wins can sometimes earn you an extra star, so it’s worthwhile trying not to lose when you’ve got a good run going. It’s worth noting that the Ranking system only allows for Clan Fight rules at the moment, with no clear indication whether there will be a Ranked mode for Extreme Fight rules.

Tournaments are disabled, so we can only guess at what’s going to be provided there, but I am excited to see the possibilities. We’ll withhold commenting on that for now.

Deck-editing is smooth and painless. I wish you could enlarge the grid view a bit, but otherwise it’s got everything I could possibly ask for.

Cardfight!! Online‘s deck-editing has all of the features you’d expect and hope for, with a variety of filters that make sorting through your collection painless and precise. There appear to be only 6 deck slots available right now, and saving more than that requires you to override one of the other deck slots. I hope this will not be the way that it is in the final release because clearly people are going to want more than 6 deck slots, but we’ll wait and see how that turns out before passing final judgment.

You can build pure clan decks or you can build Extreme Fight decks which allow you to mix cards in from other clans. I haven’t been brave enough to try my hand at the latter, but as far as pure clan decks go, it’s easy enough to do but the game doesn’t tell you about how to build a deck with the correct ratios of unit grades, so you’re going to have to do some research online and learn more about this (but here’s a very rough guide for you now: 17 Grade 0, 14 Grade 1, 12 Grade 2 and 7 Grade 3 and 8 Grade 4 units is a good rule of thumb until you learn what works best for you).

Don’t get too excited by the card crafting values seen in this image – it’s just for the Beta. They’re allowing infinite CP generation so you can test out the system. I’m hoping the real values are fair and don’t take forever, like in Hearthstone.

Card crafting is a surprise addition but a welcome one. Disenchanting cards earns you Crafting Points (CP) which can be spent enchanting the cards you need. There’s no real idea of how much CP it will cost to enchant real cards as the values are just placeholders right now, but it’s good to know that from the looks of it, it’s theoretically possible to craft everything, including SP rarity cards with their added shiny effects in-game.

The store only has one booster right now, which is GBT01 “Generation Stride”, but since you can craft all the cards for free anyway there is no reason to buy it currently. It looks like extra Trial Decks might be worth buying in the full release if you’re trying to get playsets of certain rare cards. There’re also cosmetic purchases which alter the way your battlefield looks (the playmats) and also deck sleeves which I discussed earlier. Nothing too crazy in here just yet, but it’s all looking appealing and in good working order.

The digital items apart from the cards are welcome additions, providing a bit more customization to your avatar, playmat and deck sleeves. It’s these kinds of cosmetic touches that really get me to spend a lot of money in these kinds of games.

First Impressions

As you’ve probably worked out by now, I’m incredibly impressed with Cardfight!! Online so far. It’s exceeded my expectations for a digital Vanguard game in nearly every way. Now all that remains to be seen is how the launch goes, what the free-to-play distribution model really looks like in practice and how greedy they might get with store purchases and crafting values.

I am hoping for the best when it comes to the game’s economy but I realize we’re likely going to get a highly monetized product here. Regardless, I’ll still play because I’ve been waiting for a digital version of Vanguard for a very long time now.

I hope they start adding cards from earlier sets as well because I’m a fan of the earlier days of Vanguard before all the Legion and Stride stuff was introduced. Nevertheless, even if we only get G Booster Sets and up, it will still make for a diverse and exciting card pool provided they continue to add new card sets in a timely manner compared to the physical releases.

Keep an eye on the official site for developments because you’re not going to want to miss this when it hits Steam later on this year.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/cardfight-online-early-preview/feed/7Ravaged Worlds – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/ravaged-worlds-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/ravaged-worlds-early-preview/#commentsSat, 06 Feb 2016 20:16:49 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=12865Web-based card games are nowhere near as popular as they once were. Mobile gaming has long worn the crown as... Read More »

]]>Web-based card games are nowhere near as popular as they once were. Mobile gaming has long worn the crown as the favored platform for any kind of card game – especially when in-app purchases are involved. Whilst browser-based games have a potentially larger audience with wider, easier access, they simply cannot compete with games on mobile platforms most of the time. However, that does not stop some developers from trying!

Ravaged Worlds is a fantasy-themed card game that treads the traditional trading card game path with a very classic design. There are a number of familiar mechanics that avid TCG/CCG players will recognize in addition to some new mechanics that aim to make the game feel substantially different.

Does Ravaged Worlds have enough original content to warrant your attention? Read on to find out…

Ravaged Worlds is a new digital TCG using the design concepts of a more traditional paper TCG.

Gameplay

There are a number of similar mechanics that provide the backbone of Ravaged Worlds’ gameplay. Before I discuss these in greater detail, we need to address the obvious. Whilst mobile games have moved towards a more video game-like experience, this game is more like a digital interface through which to play a physical-like TCG. Still, the loading times are rather impressive for a game of this nature and it definitely beats a lot of other web-based card games I’ve tried.

The impressive card pool is made up of a number of factions that make up the story within Ravaged Worlds, which is set around the lore of Daemonia. Many of the game’s factions are, or have at some point, fallen victim to the inhabitants of Daemonia. Many are starting to fight back, and some believe that they are able to push back the scourge for good!

As the game is in open beta you will need to sign-up via the game’s website before you can play. When you do, you’ll get to choose which faction’s starter deck you want to begin with and all of them are completely free. At this point, you will have no idea which deck is best so it’s nice to be able to make this choice based on personal preference. These cards are then added to your own personal collection and the deck is immediately assigned by default so you can jump right in on the action.

You can play in various ways. There’s a traditional one-on-one mode, all the way up to three-one-three team-up bouts, with the inclusion of unbalanced teams for an enhanced challenge. I like the idea of big team matches as these game modes are often overlooked by developers when bringing new card games to market.

Deploy cards to gain resources and then use those resources to deploy creatures and equipment. It’s a little bit like Magic: The Gathering in this respect, so Magic players will be right at home here.

Gameplay Continued…

Starting a match is just like most other card games. Draw a hand with the option to mulligan if you don’t draw an optimal opening hand. Instead of base life points, you have a Capital that must be protected. The Capital has its own hit points and is shown as a card on your board. The Capital also generates your initial resources that are needed to deploy more cards.

The resource system is dealt with through the deployment of Territory cards, which also come with hit points. Some are vanilla cards that just give resources per turn while others may have battle stats that mean they can be used to defend attacks – a risky but sometimes necessary tactic. The more of these you have in play, the more resources you’ll generate each turn.

The biggest concept change is the battle mechanics. Whilst they may look simple on the surface, they are deceptively complex. Creature (and some Territory) cards have battle stats that are taken into account when committed to battle. Power is used to determine the damage it can deal to an opposing card, Attacking Skill for that card’s combat skill, Shield for that card’s ability to defend itself, and finally, Hit Points rounding off the symbols. Creatures also have passive traits that are similar to other card games. There are so many of them that you’ll be referring back to the glossary each time you stumble across a new one.

This is where things get a bit messy. When you attack with a creature, your opponent can assign one or more of their creatures to block that attack. In nearly every other card game you are assured victory if your attack stat beats the opposing attack or defense stat. Ravaged Worlds throws dice rolling into the mix, complicating it further with a chart that signifies what roll will be needed to beat an opposing creature based on the compared Attacking and Shield Skill values.

This over complication of the battle system has you scratching your head until you learn to just live with the outcome that even your strongest creature may not be able to kill off a simple creature of lesser power if it gets lucky enough. That said, after playing with it for a while, I came to embrace and even enjoy the uncertainty that combat brings. It’s possible, although more unlikely, to bring down bigger units with smaller ones so you will never entirely feel like the game has snowballed against you. As a catch-up mechanic, it works great.

On the left of the screen, you have the Battle Log. Here you can see all of your successful and failed rolls. Once you get the hang of it, you actually start to appreciate the inherent excitement of not knowing how each combat phase is going to go down.

Features

I look forward to a version of Ravaged Worlds that has battle animations, sound effects, and even some music. These key ingredients will make the experience of playing Ravaged Worlds far more enjoyable. As it stands, the game feels very silent and lacks visual effects. I’d suggest plugging your headphones in and blasting out your favorite playlist before the silence strangles the enjoyment out of the game for you.

The artwork on the cards is somewhat hit and miss, with some great pieces of art mixed in with paintings of lesser quality. The only consistency to the cards is the much more impressive templates which really help to distinguish the factions from one another.

Ravaged Worlds currently features three playable game modes. The Arena is where all the action takes place. The Instant Action mode is where you can get straight into a match against a bot that uses a legal deck from the cards that you own. At the start of your career, these will predominantly be mirror matches and should help you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your deck.

More digital-based TCGs should allow their players to buy, sell, and trade as freely as Ravaged Worlds does. This is by far one of the game’s strongest features.

Running the Gauntlet is an endless battle against increasingly difficult A.I. opponents. The idea is to see how far you can go before falling or calling it a day and then reaping the rewards for your effort. Build A Game enables you to set up a custom game between yourself and up to 6 others, with various team balance compositions. Who would want to pass up testing their steel against three opponents in a 1-v-4 scenario?!

A campaign mode is listed but is still under development. It works in a similar fashion to capturing and holding territory for your chosen faction in the world of Silath. The more territories your faction controls, the more rewards you’ll be awarded at the end of the campaign.

One of the most appealing features here has got to be the trading systems. There’s the usual storefront that sells premium currency (Coins) in addition to booster packs. However, you can sell unwanted cards on the game’s built-in marketplace to willing buyers or even set up specific trades. You can quite literally list a card you don’t want for a card that you do want, taking all of the negotiation out of the trade and making things far more efficient.

You can also earn currency just by playing games online, so it’s feasible to never have to put money into the game if you don’t want to. Of course, it would make collecting cards much faster if you do.

Browsing the card collection screen allows you to see all of the cards in the game. This is a great way to figure out what you may want to trade for by offering up something of equivalent value.

First Impressions

What you have to consider with Ravaged Worlds is that this isn’t your typical video game TCG. Instead, this is a digital representation of a paper-based TCG. It has all the elements of a paper TCG with the true-trading, selling, and team-up matches on a web-based platform that may appear slightly antiquated since we’re now spoiled with so many flashy video game-like card games.

Ravaged Worlds will never challenge the biggest games in the genre, because I don’t think it is trying to. If it were, the developers would have opted for a delivery system other than web-based Java. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement to ensure that Ravaged Worlds gets the fan base it deserves, but I think this game will develop a strong, core community of players and that will be its strongest point.

I do hope the developers are planning on adding key details such as music and sound effects. I’m sure these are being worked on, but they need to implement these features as quickly as possible if they aim to impress.

The game shows a lot of promise. I can see the faction wars of the campaign mode being of particular interest among those that like to implement a little bit of MMORPGs into their TCGs. The core design of the game is impressive and reminds me of the physical TCGs of days gone by. If you’re at all nostalgic about classic TCGs from years gone by, then you’re definitely going to have to try this one.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/ravaged-worlds-early-preview/feed/14Emerald Lands – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/emerald-lands-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/emerald-lands-early-preview/#respondWed, 03 Feb 2016 14:23:13 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=12794Many of us have dreams to create a game that defines everything we love about the TCG/CCG genre. We like... Read More »

]]>Many of us have dreams to create a game that defines everything we love about the TCG/CCG genre. We like to design the perfect worlds in our head and fill them with beautiful creatures that battle it out for supremacy. We will often draw inspiration from other games we have played or the mystical lore of ancient civilizations.

This is exactly what the development team behind Emerald Lands has done. The project originally started out as a passion for creating a catalog of fantasy creatures but then evolved into something much more comprehensive. The team has drawn upon the games and comic books that focused on the Greek, Roman, and Slavic mythologies for their inspiration and direction.

This is yet another project that has turned to us, the card gaming community, for the much-needed support and funding the game needs to become a reality. Kickstarter offers developers the perfect platform to turn their dream into a reality, but they need our help to do it!

Let’s take a look at what we know about Emerald Lands so far. Read on…

Gameplay

Emerald Lands is a turn-based card game that has been in development for over 2 years. The original project was to catalog mystical and mythological creatures of civilizations past, but soon evolved into creating a card game free of the constraints seen in modern CCGs.

Instead of relying on random booster packs and decks for your cards, the developers want to give players the ability to choose how to play without these limitations. With this in mind, you will have access to every card in the game from the start and can customize your deck as you see fit. They are off to a good start already with this choice!

This makes the game far less about card collecting and more about the strategy and fun behind each match. More of your time will be spent playing the game and less time will be spent trying to acquire that one card that keeps you competitive. This will certainly make the game much more enjoyable than a lot of games in this genre.

You will choose an army and create a deck with units and spells that fit your chosen army. This does, however, limit the card types you may use in that deck. The creators wanted to make each deck feel unique so that each card would have a purpose, from the early to the late stages of a match. There are balancing risks associated with this as has been seen in games such as Hearthstone, where balance updates are frequent. The good news is that once the game goes into Beta, you can give feedback on these issues and the developers will restructure the cards accordingly.

Gameplay Continued…

The actual gameplay will be simple and fast-paced. The developers aim to make the game quick to learn and easily accessible to new players. The battlefield is split between the two players with units on each side trying to reduce the opposing commander’s health points to zero.

What looks like a single row is actually split into two. The front row should consist of your strongest melee units while the rear guard will be full of archer and artillery units. There will obviously be some very strategic plays to hiding your strong-ranged units behind a tough unit so that you can get the maximum amount of damage dealt out in a single turn.

Four of your unit cards are placed at the beginning of the game and in each subsequent turn you can pay to place more during the upkeep phase. The game will place random terrain cards at the start of each battle that will grant benefits or adverse effects to the units in front of or behind them. They can provide cover for ranged units or act as a means to weaken your front line. They will play a huge part in the overall strategy during the course of a match and are a helpful addition to the overall mechanics on offer.

Emerald Lands have also changed the way traditional spell cards work. Usually, you spend your primary resource to cast a spell. However, in this game if you don’t have a spellcaster on the field, your spell card will cost you more to cast it. This shows the level of detail and thought put into the game’s mechanics and how everything would interact with one another in a more realistic fashion.

The gameplay sounds exciting, easy to learn, and relatively innovative. The lack of card packs and monetized content will create a fair and balanced meta-game. Players will have access to the same components with only their deckbuilding and ingenuity separating them. Emerald Lands will more than likely be a game of skill for the budding armchair Generals among us.

Features

Perhaps the biggest feature of Emerald Lands is that you will receive all of the cards upon purchase of the game. Not many card game titles grant you this level of access without some kind of monetized content hiding in the background for those “exclusive” purchases.

Bayside Triangle, the developers behind this Kickstarter project have been discouraged by games in the past that are well-crafted, exquisitely executed, and beautiful to look at, only to have them ruin that all with premium in-game purchases or lengthy grinding sessions before you can finally obtain the cards you need. This is why they have chosen to give us access to all of the content immediately.

The game features artwork from several talented artists that have will have lovingly created over 300 cards between them before the game launches. In addition to the cards, there will be epic musical scores that capture the medieval fantasy world that the game is set in. A large chunk of the Kickstarter budget is being fed back into the creative aspects of the game, so you can be sure your pledge money is being well spent.

The game will feature seven different armies at launch. These armies are will be at the heart of your deck creation and you can utilize various strategies from each army. Emerald Lands will be a card battling game in its purest form as there will be no extra or bonus decks to contend with, just two players and two decks ready to do battle!

Several game modes have been announced that should keep you thoroughly entertained. A campaign mode with a rich story has been promised for those that like a little lore with their card battles. A quick battle option allows you to set the rules and parameters of battle so you can test bespoke strategies against a computer opponent or friend.

The terrain cards will form a major part of the gameplay. There will be over 20 terrain cards on launch with each of them playing a part in the overall strategic value of the game. It sounds as though the terrain cards will also fit thematically with the areas you’ll explore in the campaign mode. I love the diversity they will add to a battle beyond having creatures and humans attacking one another.

First Impressions

The traditional and non-traditional elements within Emerald Lands should make for some exciting gameplay. The game has yet to get an Alpha release and I’m hoping that one arrives soon, so that I can see in more detail how it plays.

The game does look like it needs a bit more visual polish, though. It is set within a medieval fantasy world but that shouldn’t be an excuse for a poor card template. The current template looks very basic and lacks polish. Visually pleasing templates and visuals are what will draw a crowd to your game and in order for more people to get on board, this will have to be updated.

The terrain is shaping up to be a major strategic feature within the game. Whether it can benefit or hinder you lies solely on the units that are interacting with it. I’m hoping that this real-life mimicking mechanic works well and isn’t just a gimmick.

The big win for Emerald Lands is the fact that you won’t have to buy endless boosters to complete your collection of cards. Everything will be included and this keeps the playing field level for all players, barring skill and creative thinking.

Overall the project sounds promising with some excellent gameplay features. The visuals will need to be taken up a notch for it to compete with other games in the genre, but there is plenty of time for those changes to be made. The developers wish to be as transparent as possible with their updates and encourage community feedback to help them improve the game, so you can have a direct influence on the development of the game, if you wish! This will definitely be one to keep an eye on as it develops further.

For more information on Emerald Lands, check out the Kickstarter here.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/emerald-lands-early-preview/feed/0Labyrinth – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/labyrinth-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/labyrinth-early-preview/#commentsMon, 01 Feb 2016 08:00:01 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=11012It appears that mixing other genres into TCGs/CCGs is all the rage with developers at the moment! Free Range Games, a... Read More »

]]>It appears that mixing other genres into TCGs/CCGs is all the rage with developers at the moment! Free Range Games, a game design studio with a successful history, are the latest developers to have a go at this. Their latest project Labyrinth is a game that combines the strategic depth seen in Collectible Card Games (CCGs) with the turn-based, tactical combat seen in Role Playing Games (RPGs). All of this is delivered in an immersive 3D world that brings the tactical battles to life.

Free Range Games asked for your help in bringing this project to life through Kickstarter, the crowd-funding website. The project managed to attract almost 1,400 backers, pledging over $150,000 between them. There are many people out there, myself included, who love turn-based RPGs. To mix this in with a CCG is just icing on the cake. Labyrinth is off to a flying start thanks to the campaign and now the developers have released a Pre-Alpha build for us to tinker with. I took a look at this early Pre-Alpha build of this exciting new game to find out well how it plays so far.

Will Labyrinth live up to the hype, or has it got lost in a labyrinthine mess of influences? Read on to find out…

Collectible Card Game meets Role Playing Game in this impressive genre mash-up. Take control of Heroes and venture into perilous dungeons crafted by other players, or create your own to challenge people online!

Gameplay

In Labyrinth, you build a deck of Heroes, Bosses, and Minions (yes, really!). In your regular deck, you’ll take control of your selected Heroes. You will then use these Heroes to venture into single-player or PvP dungeons. If you manage to survive the onslaught of these dungeons you will be rewarded with loot that you can use in defending your own dungeons, such as the aforementioned Bosses and Minions!

For the PvP experience, you must fill your dungeons with huge Bosses and Minions in order to defend them from being looted by other players in an asynchronous online multiplayer experience. The Boss will be the primary defender of your dungeon and will summon Minions to its side during the course of the battle. You’ll have to ensure you fill your dungeon with your strongest offerings, or you’ll risk being looted continuously!

There are four disciplines of magic in the realm of Hylea that draws upon different influences from the Cosmos. The four schools are Warfare, Wizardry, Faith, and Skullduggery. Warriors prefer to practice the art of Warfare and use Fury to enhance their strength and abilities. Sorcerers and Wizards use arcane and elemental forces to unleash devastating magical attacks. Those that practice Faith, such as Priests, will often command the flow of battle and provide aide to their companions. Finally, the practitioners of Skullduggery consume Stardust in order to enhance their natural abilities and increase their reflexes – often waiting for the perfect moment to deliver a fatal strike.

All Heroes will fall into one of these disciplines which go hand in hand with your deckbuilding. Their individual abilities will encourage particular deck strategies that should work in synergy with the Bosses and Minions you choose to defend your dungeon. Crafting the perfect deck will take time and plenty of attempts at raiding other players’ dungeons, though. I love this aspect to the game. It’s what intrigues me the most, to be honest — the idea of setting up your own online dungeons for others to raid is a very rarely used mechanic, so I’m very excited about that one!

The visual effects are nothing short of astounding. The attention to detail is clear to see as is the love that has gone into creating a game that pays homage to the classic D&D and fantasy games of old.

Gameplay Continued…

At the core of Labyrinth‘s gameplay is the strategic depth found in CCGs. The game has drawn upon the experience from one of the creators of Ascension and Solforge, the designer Justin Gary. So you can be assured that there will be plenty of focus on the CCG elements of the gameplay and that these card elements will be authentic to the genre’s roots.

I found the Pre-Alpha a little confusing at first as there were no instructions on how to play. I was left guessing what I needed to do and how to execute my moves. I am sure that there will be an adequate tutorial for the full release of the game, though. In any case, I was able to decipher that you can move and perform an action using one of your cards. Once your character is out of actions then play will automatically pass to the next Hero, Boss, or Minion in the turn order.

Gameplay is turn-based and uses ‘ticks’ for each of your attack, spell, and enchantment cards. When playing a card, you will then have to wait that many of card’s printed tick cost until your next move. It would be easier to think of it as a turn order, and the order changes dependent upon the actions taken. Powerful cards will almost always set you back more ticks than a weaker one, so play them with caution. Some cards, however, will also use an additional resource that is exclusive to the Hero using the card. The Warrior, for example, may use Fury to boost the power of some of his attack cards, which will result in the consumption of this resource and a much more powerful attack that deals massive damage.

You will want to be aware of the ticks you are committing to when you play a card. Long wait times will often result in that Hero falling to a Boss or Minion because they were unable to perform an action, such as moving, that would have saved their life. The right team composition is also very important when you consider the dungeon you’re attempting to raid for loot. Getting it wrong will result in certain failure!

The Bosses and Minions defending your dungeons work in a similar fashion and will have their own set of spells and abilities that will cause them to have to wait a set number of ticks until their next move. Bosses also come with their own uniquely-themed rooms that will pose even more danger for those unprepared adventurers.

The Pre-Alpha build looks and sounds relatively polished in the graphical and sound effects departments, respectively. The developers, however, were keen to let us know that the visuals are nowhere near indicative of the final release, which will be far superior to what we see here. There are many placeholder graphics for the card art and the special effects will be far more detailed than what they are now. There is no reason to expect anything less than phenomenal graphics, sounds, and gameplay when the game gets its final release, if this is what we have to go on so far!

The Bosses are imposing beasts that offer a real challenge. They will summon Minions to aid them in battle as well as landing devastating attacks on your Heroes. You will need to employ a different strategy with each new dungeon you venture into.

Features

Labyrinth is a hybrid like no other. Although it has core elements from the CCG and RPG genres, it offers players a much more rewarding experience. Playing as dungeon master is often exclusive to tabletop RPGs and is rarely seen in the digital gaming world. Mixing in CCG components for deckbuilding and strategic gameplay allows for you to be as creative as you wish.

During the Pre-Alpha, I was able to take a look at the deckbuilder. You can swap cards in and out of your deck by clicking on the card. The layout looks similar to many other popular CCGs and clearly draws inspiration from them. Before going into the editor, you can see at a glance the cards in the deck and a preview of the Hero who controls the deck. They will do some attack animation movements that give them a little more personality.

The decks controlled by Heroes are known as Offensive decks. These are the decks that you take into Raids against the PvE and PvP modes. Clearing a dungeon rewards you with experience and loot that can then be used in your Defensive deck. The Offensive deck will need to contain cards from your Heroes’ schools of magic and can contain neutral cards to bolster up the numbers, as well as allowing for some flexibility in the deckbuilding process. Spells, Attacks, and Enchantments are among the cards you can have your Heroes use while engaging in their favorite pastime of looting other players’ dungeons!

The deckbuilder is exceedingly simple to use, which is great because you’ll be using it a lot. You will need to edit your deck based on the dungeons you are about to raid nearly every time. Not doing so will almost certainly mean your Heroes will fail.

In the Pre-Alpha, I was only able to test the Raid environment where you face off against a Boss and their Minions. This mode can be quite difficult and so tailoring your team of Heroes and their decks to suit each of the dungeons is key to success.

The Defensive deck is much more interesting to me from a competitive standpoint. With this deck, you play the dungeon keeper and line your dungeon with Minions, Traps, and an epic Boss. Each Boss comes with their own unique dungeon that has its own perils for unsuspecting victims. You have complete freedom when creating your dungeon, so don’t be afraid to experiment with every aspect of the dungeon editor.

We’re told that defending your dungeon couldn’t be easier. The PvP mode is an asynchronous system that will allow you to protect your dungeon even when you’re not online. You can choose the order in which your cards are activated, giving you even more control than most other asynchronous online games.

Your dungeons will be fully customizable and the loot you gain from successful raids can be placed in your dungeon. Minions and Traps will be the main populace of your Defensive deck, with the Bosses being the ultimate challenge for unwary adventurers. Being able to play as both an adventurer and dungeon master is something that is completely new. Newer RPGs are only just starting to implement this in their game designs, but for a CCG that uses an RPG element, Labyrinth shows some real innovation in this field.

There will be an in-game store where you can buy a large variety of different items. The main purchase will be booster packs that contain additional cards for your Offensive and Defensive decks. Some other in-game items and exclusivities may end up being purchasable through the shop, but there is no definitive information on this yet.

Use your cards in order to defeat the dungeons. Heroes draw upon different disciplines of magic in order to use their abilities and cards.

First Impressions

Labyrinth is a bit like a classic Dungeons & Dragons PC game mixed with the strategic depth seen in CCGs to bring a completely unique gaming experience. There is plenty of support already out there for this game, from your casual gamer right through to professional Magic: The Gathering players. Their endorsement of this project should be enough to encourage you to think about checking it out.

The Pre-Alpha shows off some promising gameplay with its mix of RPG and CCG elements. I didn’t feel like I was experiencing one genre more so than the other. The overall blend between the two felt natural and inviting, except for the initial launch when I had no clue what I was doing! The graphics are amazing for a Pre-Alpha and are likely to only ever get more refined and impressive. If visuals alone draw you to a strategy card game, then this will be one title you should be keeping your eye on.

Labyrinth also has Justin Gary and Stone Blade Entertainment on board with the project, the guys who are responsible for Ascension, one of the most praised deckbuilder games available today. They are lending their years of expertise to ensure that the final product is an RPG of epic proportions, while keeping core CCG values and gameplay intact.

I’ve had my first filler of Ghouls, Fiery Demons, and Beast-like behemoths in the Pre-Alpha. The full version, when released, will contain so much more. I cannot wait to see what additional features the developers will be adding as the game develops. I’m so glad I was able to back this incredibly ambitious project, and I’m eagerly looking forward to the full release ahead!

Kickstarter is an amazing platform for game creators to get their ideas out there and funded. I have been fortunate enough to back several campaigns that have resulted in some truly awesome gaming sessions with my friends. Many tabletop games that come from Kickstarter campaigns offer something new, unique, and different than the usual offerings from the major publishers. This is one such game.

Strife: Legacy of the Eternals (from here on I’ll just refer to the game as Strife) is a game that caught my attention in October of 2014. It is a two-player fantasy card game using tarot-sized cards and a perfect information mechanic — there is no randomness at all and both players have access to an identical hand of cards. The entire emphasis of the game is on strategy and deducing what card your opponent will play next, and then out-playing them with your card choice.

Now is a good time to check out the game, as the standalone sequel Strife: Shadows and Steam is currently on Kickstarter, sporting an awesome steampunk theme.

Is Strife: Legacy of the Eternals worth your time? Read on to find out…

The complete box set comes with 20 Champion and 10 Location cards. If you can get your hands on a Kickstarter copy, you can use the additional Location and Event cards to enhance your Strife experience.

GAMEPLAY

Not many strategy card games use a perfect information mechanic. You would normally assume that giving your opponent access to the information about the cards you hold and those you have played would limit the strategic value offered by a game. In Strife, however, the reverse is true. Due to this, the game offers a completely different strategic depth not seen in other card games.

Both players start with the exact same deck of 10 Champion cards consisting of different classes that they use to contest Location cards, which score victory points when won. The rule set is concise with very little explanation needed before you can begin playing. That’s one of the things you’ll come to love about Strife – its overall simplicity while encouraging deep strategy.

Champion cards are numbered 0-9 and this number represents that Champion’s power in battle. There is more important information on the Champion cards that plays a huge part in the resolution of a battle, such as their Race, and Battle and Legacy abilities. The developers suggest playing a game without the Champion’s Battle Abilities in your first match so you can familiarize yourself with the phases and the flow of the game, which is probably a good idea.

You’ll have access to all of your Champion cards at any given time until they are played – so you never have to rely on a random draw to get the Champion you want or need. In order to contest a Location card, you will place your chosen Champion face-down in front of you, adjacent to the Location being contested. This is usually the farthest location from the Location deck. Both players reveal their champion at the same time and then it’s time to see if you made the right choice of Champion!

Champions carry two abilities. The Battle Ability is triggered once both cards are revealed, while the Legacy Ability is triggered on your topmost Champion in the Legacy Pile (likely to be the card you played last turn). Careful planning is required to get the best of both.

Strife’sChampions have two abilities that can often result in a Champion with a low power number beating one with a higher value. Your Champion’s Battle Ability will trigger during the Battle Phase. The Champion with the highest printed power will get to resolve theirs first, but this is where the intricacies of their abilities come into play. For example, one ability might bring a Champion back into play that was previously played, or it may be able to increase the Champion’s power based on the total number of cards you’ve played.

The Legacy Ability is a Champion’s second ability that influences the course of combat between the two opposing Champions. The difference with this ability is that it is not triggered from your newly face-up Champion, but from the topmost Champion in your Legacy Pile. The Legacy Pile is where your previously played Champions are placed at the end of the turn during the Clean-Up Phase. The Legacy Pile opens up a whole new world of possibilities and combos when combined with the Battle Ability of your face-up Champion in battle. It’s my favorite thing about this game, always forcing you to think not just about this turn, but the next turn ahead as well.

The depth of the strategy in Strife comes from drawing upon the abilities of two different Champions in separate locations. Not only that, but some Champions can alter the state or usability of these locations through their Battle or Legacy effects. So, despite having the perfect information about the Champions that have been played and the possible effects of a Location card, you will still find it difficult to predict your opponent’s next move!

I mean, look at this art. The colors and characters just burst with energy. They look even better on the mammoth-sized tarot cards when held in your hands! (Click image to enlarge.)

What happens in the result of a tie, I hear you cry? Well, that’s been sorted too, with the inclusion of the Fatestone. This is a 12-sided die that is given to the first player with the highest printed power on the first turn. The player with the Fatestone loses all ties, but can pass the stone to the opponent in order to win the tie at the cost of increasing its value. This can be a risky play as the Fatestone is worth victory points equal to its face-up value at the end of the game. It adds another element of decision-making that I love in this game — do I want to win this tie so badly that I am willing to pass the Fatestone to get it?

Strife is not only beautifully simple yet deep, it also features some amazing artwork on its tarot-sized cards. I’ve always been a sucker for larger-sized cards because I have huge hands and I appreciate being able to see the card art in a bigger format. The sizing of the cards really shows off just how much detail has gone in to making it an all-round beautiful game to play. The flexibility in playing time is of great merit to the game too. You can play a single round if you’re short on time, or a full match of three rounds. Custom rules can be incorporated, such as the first to X points wins the game or reversing the purpose of the Fatestone. However you decide to play – you’re going to enjoy it!

If you planned your moves perfectly, you might end up with a perfect lock on the opponent. Using the Warrior and Monk will lock out your opponent’s Battle and Legacy abilities. This one is a devilishly fun tactic to use.

THE STRATEGY BEHIND INFORMATION

Perfect information is not a brand new mechanic, but it is one that is definitely underused by card game developers (understandably, since it must be a nightmare to balance when playtesting). It is how the mechanic is used that makes all the difference in a game being flat or rich in strategic and rewarding gameplay.

Strife gets the balance just right and gives you the chance to try and deduce what your opponent’s next move will be, whilst taking a risk with your own play that may or may not work to your advantage. There is an element of Poker to Strife where you need to deduce from the information you have whether your next play will bring you victory or loss.

You can bluff your opponent into thinking you’re playing an optimum combo that turn in order to play an even better one on a subsequent turn. Hopefully, this will result in you gaining more points from a Location with a greater value than the one you gave up.

The Legacy Pile will often be the deciding factor, hence setting this up to support your strategy at each step throughout the game will be crucial to winning the Combat Phase and Location card victory points, as well as its possible effect. If your opponent has an effect you don’t like, then you should counter it with a Battle Ability that will negate the effect or completely change it to something that you know will not benefit your opponent.

As part of the perfect information mechanic, you will always be aware of the points your opponent has accumulated. This will help you strategize your moves according to the Location cards in play, those still available in the Location deck, and the Fatestone. Prioritizing which Champions you want to play and when will be pivotal in you coming away from the match victorious.

Certain Champions are often played at particular points in the game. The Necromancer, for example, is best played once you have a large number of Champions in your Legacy Pile.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The amount of strategic depth offered by such a simple game should be impossible. Yet here we are, with a small box game that gives you plenty to think about. The small box makes the game highly portable and should be considered as an excellent companion for holidays, trips, and even as a game to bring round to a friend’s house for a quick battle.

There are plenty of ways you can enjoy playing Strife. There are additional cards that may be purchased that came with the original Kickstarter version. These add new effects and Locations into the game that keep it feeling like a fresh experience. If you can find the additional content, then I highly recommend you pick it up.

Strife really is a big game in a little box that you definitely need to add to your collection. It’s one of those games that gets deeper and richer the more you play with someone as your knowledge of the cards and their abilities becomes more intuitive. You might steamroll over any new person you play it with, though, so keep in mind your understanding of the game will be an advantage when teaching it to others.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/review/strife-legacy-of-the-eternals/feed/3How to Play Hunter Class – Hearthstone Strategy Guide 2.0http://tradingcardgames.com/how-to-play-hunter-class-hearthstone-strategy-guide-2-0/
http://tradingcardgames.com/how-to-play-hunter-class-hearthstone-strategy-guide-2-0/#respondTue, 26 Jan 2016 18:39:29 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=12545Introduction Welcome to the Hearthstone corner. Let’s have a look at one of the most aggressive characters in the game.... Read More »

Welcome to the Hearthstone corner. Let’s have a look at one of the most aggressive characters in the game. Hunter has been a strong class since the beginning of the game, switching between midrange[1] and very aggressive[2] deck types to afford players a way to climb the Ladder[3] quickly. My favourite thing about Hunter is that he can field viable decks that are very cheap to build, making him a good class for beginning players wanting to have a chance against players with a larger card collection.

We will start by looking at some of the best class-specific cards at Hunter’s disposal before moving on to card crafting. I will then take a quick look at the usefulness of each Hearthstone Expansion to a Hunter player. After that, I will show you a basic deck that I have built. At the end we will look at the different types of Hunter decks played on the Ladder. Arena will be also briefly mentioned.

Ready? Let’s start!

Hunter is a great class for climbing the Ladder quickly. Here my midrange Hunter finishes a Zoo Warlock.

What Does a Hunter Want?

Hunter’s hero power defines how the class is played. Dealing 2 points of damage to the enemy hero each turn is a very strong ability, but it doesn’t help with the state of the board and it doesn’t help the hero survive longer. This limits the way that Hunter can be played, forcing Hunters to favour a more aggressive play style. This applies to both ranked play and the Arena.

Let’s take a peek at the best cards at Hunter’s disposal:

Webspinner is a frequent starting card in Midrange decks, as its Deathrattle frequently brings in a strong Beast. Receiving Savannah Highmaneor even King Krush for 1 Mana is great. King’s Elekk does a similar service in Midrange decks, making it unnecessary to carry any further card draw.

Houndmaster works well in Hunter decks because there are so many strong Beasts to use his effect on. He basically brings in 6/5 of stats and a Taunt for 4 Mana, which is a great deal.

Savannah Highmane is one of the best Minions in the game. It’s very sticky and affords 10/9 stats for 6 Mana. To remove it altogether usually requires a mix of resources – a Silence will get rid of the Hyenas, but will leave a 6/5 on the board. Spells like Hex and Polymorph tend to be the best way of dealing with a Savannah Highmane.

Animal Companion tends to be the ideal turn three play. All of the 3 possible resulting Beasts are strong in their own right and useful in different ways. Leokkis a great Minion to take advantage of – it goes well with Unleash the Hounds and if it’s on the board, it can either allow for favourable trades or increased aggression.

Unleash the Hounds is a wonderful card that is best kept until the time is right. Many decks nowadays fill the board quickly (Zoo Warlock, many Paladin and Shaman decks), providing a board full of charged puppies for a measly 3 Mana. While playing Facehunter, this card often won me games against less skilled players.

Hunter is a class that practically always carries, at least, one Weapon. Eaglehorn Bow is great on its own, it also tends to receive extra charges, as most Hunter decks carry several Secrets. Glaivezooka is a good pick for aggressive decks where dealing a fair amount of damage each turn is the strategy to win.

Kill Command and Quick Shot tend to be played differently depending on the type of deck they are in. Aggressive decks like Facehunter will deal damage to the face towards the end of the game while Midrange decks will also use them against Minions. The cost of these cards is just right.

Hunters’ Secrets cost 2 Mana and there is a useful trap for every type of deck, making Mad Scientist a great turn two drop. Slower decks tend to go for Freezing Trap (which can stop a player with a few cheap Minions in his tracks and create loads of tempo) and Bear Trap; faster decks like Explosive Trap (it also damages the opponent’s face). Snake Trapis also very common, as it synergizes with many other cards – Knife Juggleror Leokk, for example.

King Krush always comes unexpectedly. It’s a great feeling getting him off a Webspinner.

When it comes to Legendaries, Hunter has been fairly unlucky. None of the Legendaries at his disposal see much play and there are good reasons for this. I really like Gahz’Rilla‘s effect but it would suit a slower Control deck or a deck where the player can easily deal small amounts of damage to the Minion. King Krush is very expensive and only tends to see the light of day if it comes out of a Webspinner or a Ram Wrangler.

What About Those Neutral Minions?

Hunters can take advantage of many cards, so let’s look at the most useful.

Classic

Abusive Sergeant (added damage and a high attack value for such little cost is great for Facehunters)

Leper Gnome(useful in a deck that wishes to deal a lot of damage quickly)

Ironbeak Owl (Hunters don’t have any class-specific Silence effects and they can struggle against enemy Taunts, making this card useful)

Goblins vs. Gnomes

Dr. Boom (the best late-game Legendary in the game, useful in all but the most aggressive decks)

TGT

Argent Horserider (another Charged Minion who is also hard to remove due to the Divine Shield)

To Craft or Not to Craft

There have been five Expansions since the release of Hearthstone. Let’s explore which ones are the most useful.

This is the second time in a row that my King’s Elek has drawn two Dr. Booms. It’s hard to be angry when it happens the second time.

The classic card set is where most of the essential cards can be found. Whatever the speed of your deck, whether you are planning to go all out aggressive or midrange, most of your cards will be found there. Naxxramas is just as useful – Mad Scientist, Haunted Creeper and Loatheb are all excellent, as is Webspinner. Sludge Belchercan come in handy if you need some stopping power.

Other Expansions are more disappointing. Piloted Shredder and Dr. Boom are exceptionally useful, as can be Glaivezooka for a very quick deck, but they don’t form the core of any typical deck. Blackrock offers Quick Shot, which isn’t essential, but works great both as removal and as card draw for quick decks. The Grand Tournament is equally underwhelming, although King’s Elekk works well in Midrange decks and Ram Wrangler can be fun in Beast-heavy decks.

When it comes to crafting, I tend to only craft cards of Legendary rarity, while rarely crafting some Epic cards too. I will first craft the most useful Neutral Legendaries, ones that are strong across several classes and deck types, and only then move on to class-specific ones.

Crafting anything of a lesser rarity than Epic is still expensive, especially as cards of lesser rarity tend to show up in opened packs sooner or later. Players who want to quickly play a specific type of deck, or concentrate on a single character, won’t mind.

Let’s move on to a basic deck that a new player can play from the start.

Starting Hunter Deck

All of the basic cards below are unlocked by making it to level 10 with Hunter. This deck is strong enough to make it against players with access to better cards but it won’t climb higher than rank 15. With access to basic cards only, it isn’t possible to build any other type of deck than a Control deck. For Hunter, whose hero power is offensive, this constitutes a problem. As a result, this is one of the weaker basic decks out of the ones I have prepared for each class. As always, as you find new cards to add to the deck, you should do so. Building your own decks and finding out which combinations of cards work well is one of the essential Hearthstone skills.

Even though this deck doesn’t take much advantage from the hero power, it can finish games.

Neutral

This starting deck has an unusually high number of cards that synergize together. There are numerous Beasts and cards that take advantage of Beasts. Tundra Rhinocan bring a lot of unpleasant surprises for your opponent if it survives until next turn. Core Hound really likes to be Charged. Starving Buzzard will function for card draw – as it’s so weak, it’s best to use it the same turn that it can draw some cards. It will rarely survive longer.

The hero power is not very useful in this type of deck, so only use it if there is nothing else to do. You are going for the board, hoping to win later in the game, so cutting chunks of health away from your opponent won’t do much good.

Be careful in using spells like Arcane Shot and Kill Command – they are best used against enemy Minions or to finish a game, not to hurt the enemy hero early in the game.

Look What I Found on the Internet

Hunter has gone in and out of favour as the quickest way of climbing to high ranks. For a while Facehunter used to be all over the Ladder[5], nowadays Midrange Hunter is the most common sight.

My opponent forgot about Unleash the Hounds, which cost them the game.

Facehunter plays a large number of low-cost cards that deal a lot of damage quickly. There are Minions with Charge, Weapons, two or three Secrets (mainly Explosive Trap), some damage-dealing spells, and a few simple synergies. There is very little variety between the different versions of this deck. Facehunter counts on finishing the game before he runs out of cards. There is no healing, no card draw, and it lacks board clears (but it does have Unleash theHounds). Opponents should plan on surviving until the Facehunter runs out of cards to play, or if equally aggressive, deal more damage quicker. Matches between aggressive decks (especially mirror matches[6]) can be very interesting as they are often won by one of the players being better at deciding when to fight for the board and when to go for the face.

Midrange Hunters can also be very aggressive but they carry more expensive cards, as well as considerably more late-game Minions like Dr. Boom or Savannah Highmane. There is more variety in how they are structured – their Secrets can vary (although I find Freezing Trapto be the most useful). Playing against them is more complicated as they are well-rounded. They rarely run out of cards and can keep the pressure up for a very long time with sticky Minions like Piloted Shredder and Savannah Highmane. Their weaknesses tend to be their lack of healing and no board clears (once again, they do carry Unleash the Hounds) so outpacing them generally works.

There are two other types of decks I would like to mention – Hybrid and Beast Hunter. Hybrid, as the name suggests, combines the best of Facehunter and Midrange Hunter – it is essentially an aggressive deck but it uses sticky Minions to deal ongoing persistent damage. Beast Hunter is a version of Midrange Hunter that uses many of the different available Beast synergies. You may find Ram Wrangler, Tomb Spider, and even Tundra Rhino.

Hunter has a surprisingly large number of good Control cards. However, they don’t always go very well together, and the hero power is a huge setback for slow decks which is why Control Hunter is so rare on the Ladder. Sir Finley Mrrgglton has something to say about Hunter’s hero power, but even he can’t save this deck from being quite weak.

I like to try out unusual decks. In here I am testing a Mech Hunter. It does a lot better than I expected and surprises me by beating this Aggro Paladin.

Conclusion

For a long time, I used to dislike the Hunter class as Facehunter and other aggressive decks that followed, all of them greatly speeding up the meta, were the reason for the disappearance of a lot of the fun decks that I used to play. Nowadays, and with a more rounded meta, I actually enjoy playing Hunter, or against him. I still consider Hunter one of the best ways to climb the Ladder quickly and I find there’s a lot to learn even while playing Facehunter. Best of all, Hunter decks tend to be very cheap while staying competitive, making them available to newer players from early on.

To finish up, I hope that this guide has been of use and that you found out something that you didn’t know before. If not, you certainly made it very far. Have fun playing Hearthstoneand make sure to check out our other helpful guides and articles here. I will see you on the Ladder.

[1]Midrange decks generally play for the board early on, going aggressively later in the game. Often they will play a control game against aggressive decks and be more aggressive against control decks.

[2]Aggressive decks like to build pressure from the very start of the game and take out the opponent before he manages to find his footing. Aggressive decks generally favour the face more than trading with enemy Minions.

[3]Ranked play mode where players compete against each other, trying to reach higher ranks. The climb begins at rank 25, going all the way to rank 1 and Legend rank after that.

[4]The ability to deal enough damage to defeat the opponent is called Lethal.

[5]Facehunter has become less popular with the advent of other aggressive decks, Secret Paladin prime among them. Reno Jackson is another reason – Facehunter doesn’t stand a chance against a deck that can heal all of its Hero’s health in one turn.

]]>http://tradingcardgames.com/how-to-play-hunter-class-hearthstone-strategy-guide-2-0/feed/0Talisman: Horus Heresy – Early Previewhttp://tradingcardgames.com/talisman-horus-heresy-early-preview/
http://tradingcardgames.com/talisman-horus-heresy-early-preview/#commentsTue, 26 Jan 2016 18:13:29 +0000http://tradingcardgames.com/?p=12705Talisman: Horus Heresy is a digital board game set in the Warhammer 40K universe after the events that transpired during... Read More »

]]>Talisman: Horus Heresy is a digital board game set in the Warhammer 40K universe after the events that transpired during the Horus Heresy. The game uses the traditional Talisman rules system with some adaptations for the Warhammer 40K theme. This adaptation is beautifully crafted with some amazing visuals of planets, solar systems, and space anomalies.

You take on the role as one or more of the galaxy’s bravest heroes or malicious villains, with up to three others in direct head-to-head or team-based gameplay. Choose your allegiance between loyalist and traitor and have your Warlord command Space Marines, spacecraft fleets, and even battle tanks. Make your way across the galaxy to either defeat the Emperor or Horus, depending on your chosen faction.

Can Talisman: Horus Heresy live up to the acclaim of the original Talisman? Read on to find out…

The highly detailed interactive game board gives the Talisman engine a modern feel. You really get a sense of traversing large expanses of space as you roll-and-move your Warlord around the board.

Gameplay

The digital version of Talisman that I reviewed not so long ago managed to score decently. The game was created to look like its original tabletop counterpart, though this did make the visuals look like they had come from a mid-’90s game. Talisman: Horus Heresy fixes the visuals complaint immediately with a highly detailed and interactive game board.

Zooming in from the standard view reveals different levels of details with the best visuals appearing when you are zoomed right in on a set tile. The game will automatically bring you to this view when you choose to interact with the tile you landed on. The zoomed out game board contains all the basic information you need to know, whilst still looking amazing.

The gameplay certainly feels as though you are playing a Talisman game, except there are a few tweaks that differentiate this title from being just a Talisman clone. However, the game still relies on RNG (random number generation) for a huge chunk of the player interactions with the board or against one another, be they on specific tiles or in battle. This may be a breaking point for some prospective players who like to remain in complete control.

Combat can be close or ranged. If you manage to get either of these stats high enough you will be able to obliterate any encounter you face. Though doing so makes the game far less challenging.

Talisman: Horus Heresy keeps some of the basic statistics associated with your chosen character, but makes a couple of thematic changes for continuity. Instead of a health pool, you have Resolve, which works in the exact same way as health — lose it all and your character is eliminated from the game. Fate received no changes and still works as a re-roll mechanic in times of need. The same can be said of Resources, which replace Gold.

The way in which combat resolves has had a decent rework that makes much more thematic sense. Strength and Craft stats have been replaced with two different combat statistics: Close and Ranged Combat (making much more thematic sense for the W40k universe). All characters start with a base value that can be increased throughout the game. There are tiles that can increase one or more of these values with an RNG roll or you can gain experience points on them by winning encounters.

The experience points mechanic replaces the trophy method used in the original Talisman, where you could hold on to defeated creatures and then discard them to increase one of your statistics. Now you earn experience for each defeated encounter, which in turn increases the statistic once enough experience has been earned. What I love most about this new approach is that it feels so much more realistic and immediate, giving a strong sense of character growth as you play the game.

The Strategy stat is used to hold Strategem cards. These are essentially spells. Just like your combat statistics, this stat will need to be leveled up in order to increase the maximum number of Strategem cards your character can hold. All of the statistics start at base values depending on your chosen Warlord and all of these cannot be depleted beyond their starting point, except Resolve and Resource.

Random number generation (RNG) still features heavily. Most of the encounters on the board or in combat require you to roll a die to determine the outcome. You’ll want to pray to RNGesus to ensure you get the rolls you need!

Gameplay Continued…

All of these changes make sure that Talisman: Horus Heresy feels distinctly different to the classic Talisman game. The core mechanic of a die roll to move is still here, though — the old-fashioned movement mechanic seen in many tabletop games and even some digital board games. In this game, you can re-roll using Fate if you feel you get no benefit from or want to avoid particular tiles.

The usual encounter deck is filled with Dataslates which consist of combat encounters, special characters, equipment, resources, and other special event cards. Some tiles require you to encounter one or more Dataslates at a time, which will either be of great benefit or a significant hindrance. Some Dataslates will remain on the tile and will reduce the number of new encounters you may have there if any.

Another difference from Talisman that I like is that encountered Units are divided into loyalist or trailer camps, adding another dimension to combat. You can try to rejoin a Unit to your side which avoids a combat and any subsequent penalties if you fail. Some Warlords have abilities that use or somehow interact with collected Units, such as sacrificing one before combat to get a +3 to your roll.

Just like in the original Talisman game there are tiles that have their own text effects. These generally don’t have any Dataslates to encounter, but will have their own RNG roll events or encounter requirements, such as passing to the inner ring. You can encounter anything from shops to buying equipment to your home planet, where you can roll for a number of different positive (and negative!) effects.

More often than not, you will be playing to increase your character’s statistics. This often has the effect of making you feel as though you are playing a solo game, as opposed to playing against other players.

There are a couple of minor issues that have been carried over from the original Talisman game. The biggest one is player interaction. If you’re playing on one computer, one person will usually be clicking on the screen for all players. This will often feel like watching one player participate in the whole game while everyone else watches. It really brings out the core weakness of the Talisman system, which is that it is nearly entirely random where you go and what you do most of the time.

The lack of interaction continues online where you can only really interact with your opponents via Strategems and direct conflict, which will often be avoided until you know you can win the fight. Most of the time each player will be playing their own game trying to increase their statistics through random encounters and successful die rolls.

The only way to ensure you are continually interacting with another player is to make decisions together by playing in a team-based game. However, if you end up disagreeing on what actions to take you will once again fall into playing your own game.

None of this is at the fault of the remodel. It is symptomatic of traditional roll-and-move mechanics and dated board game designs. These types of games often leave players without the means to interact with one another on a regular basis and certainly can’t keep up with the way modern games thrive on interaction between players. So with that in mind, we can almost forgive this shortcoming and focus on how great it feels to play a beautifully designed game set in the Warhammer 40K universe!

The ‘My Collection’ tab on the main menu allows you to access all of the Dataslates you have from the core game and its expansions. Though why would you want to ruin the surprise of not knowing what you may encounter?

Features

The basics are covered when you encounter the main menu of Talisman: Horus Heresy. Play lets you set up a local game consisting of solo or team-based play. You can do this with other people or have the A.I. fill the open slots, which can be a decent way to learn the game before you want to try your luck online. Everything in this mode will provide all players with a perfect information scenario. All of the Dataslates and Strategems you pick up will be known by all players.

Online Multiplayer is where the developers wish you to spend most of your time and you really wouldn’t be getting the most out of the game if you decided against doing so. This mode features the same options as the Play mode, solo or team-based options. However, this will mean some of the Strategems you can pick up will remain a secret from the opponents until they are played.

The fact that the game can support up to four players should encourage you to participate in some team battles. Not only is it more fun to play with another human being, it’s also a great way to find new friends online as you share a similar bond through your love of either Talisman or Warhammer 40K games.

Signing in to your profile will allow you to earn profile and Warlord experience at the end of the game. This will happen whether you win or lose as there are multiple awards for achieving certain milestones in the game. This will unlock Steam achievements along with showing everyone your prowess with particular Warlords. I love this sense of meta-progression between games and it will make the game vastly more replayable for me.

There will be expansions that you can buy as the shop page is already set up inside of the game. These will increase the longevity of your game and offer up new Dataslates and Warlords to play with. A true fan of Warhammer 40K will not pass up the opportunity to own more Warhammer 40K themed products! All of your purchases and associated material can be seen in ‘My Collection’.

If you make it all the way to the center of the board, you will face off against your faction’s main enemy. For the loyalist, this will be Horus, and as a traitor, you’ll face the Emperor himself! (And yes, it does feel totally blasphemous to destroy the Emperor at the end of a game…)

First Impressions

Talisman: Horus Heresy allows you to experience Talisman with a modern, sci-fi flavor even if you’re not into the Warhammer 40k universe. The traditional Talisman may not be to everyone’s tastes, especially aesthetically. However, Talisman: Horus Heresy drags it into a new era with improved visuals and a theme that will see fans of the Warhammer 40K franchise flock to it.

The improved interactive game board makes the gameplay much more immersive. You really get a sense of traversing vast expanses of space while encountering enemies and fleets of spacecraft that you can call upon to aid you in battle. The split between Close and Ranged Combat will often determine how you approach a battle and can often result in numerous defeats at the beginning of the game.

There is plenty of replay value to be had here. The additional content only extends this further, as you already have access to plenty of different Warlords that have their own unique powers to explore. Playing online multiplayer games is by far the most productive use of the game and should be able to hold your interest for a long while.

If you can look past the lack of player interaction – where the fault lies with an archaic game mechanic, rather than the title itself – then you should enjoy Talisman: Horus Heresy. It is certainly far more modern than its traditional counterpart, and if I dare say, a lot more fun as a result.